Amazon Web Services Disruption Causes Outages for HMRC, Zoom, Snapchat, and More

Amazon Web Services (AWS) disruption has caused outages at HMRC, Zoom, Snapchat, and other internet services. Downdetector reports a spike in complaints, with over 2,681 issues at AWS and 500 at HMRC's website. AWS confirms increased error rates and latencies, affecting services like DynamoDB, CloudFront, and Security Token Service. Amazon shares were down 0.5% in pre-market trading.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) experienced a significant outage on September 12, 2025, leading to disruptions across various internet services and causing widespread concern among users and investors. The outage, which began around 2:30 am EST, affected numerous popular websites and applications, including Amazon, Snapchat, Robinhood, Lyft, Venmo, Disney+, McDonald's, Roblox, Fortnite, and others, according to a Seeking Alpha report https://seekingalpha.com/news/4505484-amazon-web-services-outage.

AWS confirmed increased error rates and latencies for multiple services in the US-EAST-1 region, with engineers actively working to mitigate the issue and identify the root cause, according to the Seeking Alpha report. The outage has impacted various services, including DynamoDB, CloudFront, and Security Token Service. Additionally, Amazon's shopping website, Prime Video, and Alexa were also experiencing issues, according to a MarketScreener report https://www.marketscreener.com/news/many-websites-apps-go-dark-as-amazon-s-cloud-unit-reports-global-outage-ce7d5ad2db80f022.

The disruption has affected both businesses and individual users, with over 2,681 issues reported at AWS and 500 at HMRC's website by Downdetector. The outage has had a significant impact on various industries, including gaming, finance, and e-commerce. For instance, Fortnite, owned by Epic Games, was down, along with other popular gaming platforms like Roblox, Clash Royale, and Clash of Clans, as reported by MarketScreener. Financial platforms such as PayPal's Venmo and Chime were also affected, as were messaging apps like Signal, according to MarketScreener.

The outage has had an immediate impact on Amazon's stock price, with shares down 0.5% in pre-market trading, the Seeking Alpha report noted. The disruption highlights the critical role AWS plays in the digital infrastructure of numerous businesses and the potential risks associated with relying on a single cloud service provider.

AWS is one of the leading cloud service providers, competing with Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The outage serves as a reminder of the importance of redundancy and diversifying cloud service providers to minimize potential disruptions.