A massive internet outage occurred on June 12, 2025, affecting several major platforms, including Google, Spotify, Snapchat, Discord, and DoorDash. The outage was caused by a configuration error within Google Cloud’s Load Balancing service, which is a core part of how traffic is managed across Google Cloud.
Impacted Services
The following services were impacted by the outage¹ ² ³:
- Google Services:
- Google Search
- Google Gemini
- Gmail
- YouTube
- Google Maps
- Google Drive
- Google Meet
- Google Cloud
- Music and Entertainment:
- Spotify
- Twitch
- Nintendo Switch Online
- Pokémon Trading Card Game
- Rocket League
- Social Media and Communication:
- Snapchat
- Discord
- E-commerce and Business:
- Shopify
- DoorDash
- Etsy
- Calendly
- Other Services:
- Cloudflare
- GitLab
- Vimeo
- fuboTV
- Anthropic (Claude)
- Marvel
- MLB.tv
- IKEA
- Equifax
- The outage was caused by a configuration error within Google Cloud’s Load Balancing service. Google Cloud engineers responded swiftly to isolate and correct the issue, with most services resuming normal functionality within a few hours. Google has since promised a full postmortem and plans to review failover protocols to avoid future disruptions.The outage sparked widespread frustration, with many users taking to social media to express their concerns. Businesses were also affected, with lost sales, poor customer experience, and data access delays marking a frustrating day across industries. IT professionals and cybersecurity analysts pointed out that the incident underscores the need for better backup strategies and cloud-agnostic infrastructure.Google Cloud engineers worked throughout the evening to fully restore all affected services. The incident serves as a stark reminder of how dependent modern life has become on digital infrastructure and highlights the importance of having backup plans and diversified digital infrastructure.In the aftermath of the outage, experts suggest that companies should prioritize building hybrid systems and diversifying cloud strategies to withstand such outages in the future. The incident also underscores the need for redundancy and backup systems to maintain digital resilience.
