Major internet outage impacts websites and apps around the world

A slew of websites and apps around the world went down this morning after Fastly, a major content delivery network, reported a widespread failure.

So what exactly happened? Fastly said it had identified a service configuration that triggered disruptions across its servers. The company has disabled that configuration.

Essentially, Fastly took down its own network with a bad software update — a rare but not unheard of goof that has temporarily brought down parts of even larger online platforms, including Google (GOOGL) and Amazon (AMZN), in the past.

Websites and apps around the world went down this morning after Fastly, a major content delivery network, reported a widespread failure.

Fastly helps improve load times for websites and provides other services to internet sites, apps and platforms. But because Fastly provides a layer of support between internet companies and customers trying to access news sites, social media and other online platforms, when it goes down, access to those services can be blocked entirely.

When Fastly went down, it went down hard: Three-quarters of the traffic coming from Fastly disappeared at around 5:49 am ET, according to Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for Kentik, a cloud company that assists large companies with network problems.

Traffic began returning about 50 minutes later, at 6:39 am ET.

The UK government's website, which was affected by the massive global internet outage, is back online.

Initially, when the outage issue was fixed by cloud service provider Fastly, the website's Twitter account said most information and services were back online. However, it was still "working to resolve any remaining issues."

About an hour later, it said the website was working as normal.

The outage affected a myriad of websites and apps across the Americas, Europe, Asia and South Africa.

Websites and apps around the world went down Tuesday morning, including government websites such as Gov.uk, e-commerce websites like Target, and media websites like CNN and the New York Times.

The outage affected dozens of countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia, as well as South Africa.

The problem appeared to be related to an outage at Fastly, a cloud service provider, which reported a widespread failure. It says it has identified and fixed the issue but many websites continued to be unavailable for some users as of 7 a.m. ET.

The provider helps improve load times for websites and provides other services to internet sites, apps and platforms — including a large global server network.

Fastly supports news sites and apps like CNN, the Guardian, the New York Times and many others. It also provides content delivery for Twitch, Pinterest, HBO Max, Hulu, Reddit, Spotify and other services.

Major website and app outages happen from time to time and typically don't last long — internet service providers, content delivery networks and other hosting services are built with multiple redundancies and a global network of backup servers designed to reduce disruptions when things go haywire.

After cloud service provider Fastly said it had identified and fixed the issue causing the massive internet outage, many websites continued to be unavailable for some users at 7 a.m. ET.

Fastly helps improve load times for websites and provides other services to internet sites, apps and platforms — including a large global server network.

Countless websites and apps around the world faced an outage after Fastly, a major content delivery network, reported a widespread failure.

Fastly helps improve the time it takes for websites to load and provides other services to internet sites, apps and platforms — including a large global server network.

Fastly supports news sites and apps like CNN, the Guardian, the New York Times and many others. It also provides content delivery for Twitch, Pinterest, HBO Max, Hulu, Reddit, Spotify and other services.

Fastly, a major content delivery network, that reported a widespread failure, resulting in a massive internet outage around the world says the issue has been fixed.

"The issue has been identified and a fix has been applied. Customers may experience increased origin load as global services return," the company said on its service status website.

The UK government's website has also been affected by the massive global internet outage, along with media and entertainment sites.

"We are investigating this as a matter of urgency," the website's Twitter account stated.

An outage impacted several websites and apps across the world, including Amazon, Target, and Gov.uk, after Fastly, a major content delivery network, reported a widespread failure.

"We are continuing to investigate this issue," the company said on its service status website.