Zoom down: Internet outage knocks out popular apps across East Coast
It’s unclear so far why these problems are occurring
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Your support makes all the difference.Numerous internet-users on the East Coast reported problems accessing popular apps like Gmail, Slack, Zoom, and YouTube on Tuesday, throwing a wrench in attempts to work or attend school from home amid the pandemic. The cause of the outage is unclear so far.
Downdetector, a crowd-sourced site that tracks tech problems, reported spikes in issues with Verizon, Gmail, Zoom, YouTube, and cloud provider Amazon Web Services, all concentrated on the East Coast.
On Twitter, which many were still able to access, users reported the problems in real time, with some suspecting the root was Verizon Fios high-speed internet.
“PWCS is aware of internet connection problems with Verizon FIOS impacting students and staff,” Prince William County Public Schools, in Virginia, posted on Tuesday morning.
“Verizon’s Internet is out on the east coast and my whole office is down,” wrote another Twitter user.
Slack and Google told The Independent they were aware of the incident but the problem didn’t stem from their services. Zoom and Verizon did not respond to a request for comment.
In response to a question on Twitter about the connectivity problems, Verizon’s support line told a customer there “is a fiber cut in Brooklyn.”
Amazon Web Services noted that it was looking into connectivity issues between its services and an external web provider, and noted all of its offerings were running normally and users were “starting to see recovery for the connectivity issues" by the late morning.
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