EDITOR NOTE: When Google went down due to an outage on Monday, several other services and companies relying on Google also went down, including Netflix, Uber, and Twitter. That’s what happens when core services are tied in to a central hub; the risk of “centralization.” Imagine that in the future, when all money is distributed and stored via central bank digital currency systems, that such an outage takes place, whether due to error, power failure, or cyberattack. Would you accept being put in such a vulnerable position? Apparently, many Americans are, for the sake of “convenience.”
Alphabet’s Google suffered a worldwide outage Monday that took several services including YouTube, Gmail and Google Drive offline.
Service has since been restored, according to Google. The company’s Workspace Status Dashboard shows all of its services are now back up and running as normal.
Several people on social media reported issues with the platforms Monday morning, with Gmail, YouTube and Google Drive all showing error messages without further explanation.
According to Down Detector, a site that aggregates reports of online service outages, problems with the platforms spiked at around 6:30 a.m. ET.
Google later confirmed the outage, saying all services — including its calendar and videoconferencing apps — were facing downtime.
“We’re all clear folks!” Google tweeted just after 8 a.m. ET. “Thanks for staying with us.”
We’re all clear folks! Thanks for staying with us.
— Google Workspace (@GoogleWorkspace) December 14, 2020
The company hasn’t yet given a reason for the outage. Google wasn’t immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
Some of the largest companies in the U.S. rely on Google services, including Uber, Netflix and Twitter.
Originally posted on CNBC
