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Internet users across the East Coast have been unable to access internet services including Gmail, Slack and Zoom due to an outage on Tuesday likely caused by a cut fiber in Brooklyn, leading to major disruptions for people either working or taking classes from home while schools and offices remain shut due to the pandemic.

Key Facts

The exact reason behind the outage is unclear as Amazon Web Services — which hosts many popular online services — reported on its status page that it was investigating connectivity issues with an internet provider.

Google, which hosts all of its own services, has not reported any issues with its cloud servers.

Crowdsourced data on Downdetector.com shows that many sites have been affected by the outage including Amazon, YouTube, Comcast and Verizon.

Responding to a tweet from a customer, Verizon blamed the outage on a cut fiber in Brooklyn, but it is unclear if the damaged cable is the sole reason behind the large-scale outage.

Forbes has reached out to Verizon for a comment on the issue.

Key Facts

Last month, Google was hit with a much larger global outage taking down all its major services including Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Docs, Google Drive. At the time Google blamed the issue on an authentication system outage that prevented users from logging into their accounts. In November, Amazon Web Services, the e-commerce giant’s cloud service, was also hit with a similar outage that disrupted large portions of the web. Both outages had led to debates about the oversized footprint of Google and Amazon’s cloud services and the domino effect their outages can have on the entire web.

Further Reading

Big Internet outages hit the East Coast, causing issues for Verizon, Zoom, Slack, Gmail (Washington Post)