NAIROBI, Kenya- A number of popular websites and apps were left inaccessible on Monday, October 20, following a global outage on Amazon Web Services (AWS) — the cloud backbone powering much of the modern internet.
According to Downdetector, reports of the outage began around 10 a.m. (EAT), with noticeable impact in Kenya and other regions across the world. By mid-morning, more than 13,000 user complaints had been logged globally, as major online platforms went dark or slowed to a crawl.
Among the hardest hit in Kenya were Snapchat, Roblox, Canva, and Duolingo — platforms heavily relied upon by creators, students, gamers, and digital professionals.
Snapchat users reported being unable to send snaps or open the app.
Roblox, the popular online gaming platform, suffered login and server issues, frustrating players and local developers who depend on it for income.
Canva, a go-to design tool for marketers and students, displayed blank screens and failed to load saved projects.
Duolingo learners also found their lessons disrupted as the app repeatedly crashed or froze mid-session.
Globally, the ripple effects extended to Coinbase, Amazon Alexa, Crunchyroll, Fortnite, PUBG, Apple TV, and even The New York Times.
Amazon had not yet released a detailed explanation by Monday evening, but tech analysts suspect the disruption could stem from server misconfigurations or system overloads within AWS’s massive cloud infrastructure — issues that have caused similar global slowdowns in the past.
While many major services were affected, Google’s suite of apps — which runs on its own cloud platform — remained stable. Meta’s platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) also appeared unaffected.
AWS powers a significant portion of the world’s internet services, from entertainment apps and fintech platforms to government systems and enterprise tools. Outages like this highlight the internet’s deep dependence on a few tech giants — and how one glitch can bring parts of the digital world to a standstill.
