

YouTube suffered a widespread outage affecting thousands. Users of the social media platform reported downtime on February 18 while using the video streaming application. Users in the United States and India also faced the same issue. Here’s a detailed overview of the situation and the latest update.
Also read: YouTube Comment Sections Disappear for Some Viewers Using Ad-Blocking Tools
YouTube experienced a technical glitch around 7:00 AM IST on February 18. Over 2,80,000 users in the US and more than 18,000 users in India reported about the outage on Downdetector, a real-time downtime monitoring service. The report also highlights that about 74% of users faced problems with the app, around 16% had trouble streaming videos, and the remaining 10% filed a complaint about the website.
The platform responded to the outage, saying, ‘An issue with our recommendations system prevented videos from appearing across surfaces on YouTube (including the homepage, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, and YouTube Kids). The homepage is back, but we’re still working on a full fix.’ The tech company also explained that they have received a few reports of users being unable to log in to YouTube TV.
Netizens took to social media to express their reactions to the outage. Many posted hilarious, sarcastic meme videos on X (previously known as Twitter). Some started discussing the reason behind this glitch.
The latest update from YouTube on X suggests the platform is back on track. The post reads, “Aaaand we're back!! This issue has been fixed across YouTube. Thanks for all the reports and for bearing with us while we sorted it out.” Now you can stream your favourite shows and videos.