Google Cloud outage June 2024
Major Global Internet Outage: Google, Spotify, Snapchat Down Due to Google Cloud Crash
By Rahul
14 June 2025
A **massive internet outage** struck today, disrupting access to **Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, Spotify, Snapchat, and dozens of other platforms** for millions of users worldwide. The root cause? A **catastrophic failure in Google Cloud’s infrastructure**, marking one of the **worst outages of 2024**.
In this **breaking news analysis**, we’ll cover:
✔ **Which services were affected—and for how long?**
✔ **Google’s official statement on the outage**
✔ **Why Google Cloud’s failure caused a domino effect**
✔ **How this compares to past outages (AWS, Facebook, Cloudflare)**
✔ **What users and businesses should do to prepare for future crashes**
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## **1. Timeline of the Outage: When Did Services Go Down?**
- **Start Time:** **June 27, 2024 – 9:45 AM UTC**
- **Peak Impact:** **10:30 AM UTC** (Over **5,000+ reports** on Downdetector).
- **Partial Recovery:** **12:15 PM UTC** (Google services restored).
- **Full Restoration:** **2:30 PM UTC** (All platforms back online).
### **Affected Platforms:**
✅ **Google Services:** Search, YouTube, Gmail, Google Drive, Maps
✅ **Streaming:** Spotify, Discord, Netflix (partial)
✅ **Social Media:** Snapchat, Pinterest, Shopify (checkout errors)
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## **2. Google’s Response: What Went Wrong?**
Google Cloud posted an **incident report** confirming:
> *“A cascading failure in our **network routing infrastructure** caused disruptions across multiple regions. We’ve resolved the root cause and are monitoring recovery.”*
### **Root Cause Breakdown:**
- **BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) misconfiguration** – Incorrect routing tables caused traffic blackholes.
- **Auto-recovery systems failed** – Manual intervention was required.
- **Third-party dependencies crashed** – Some APIs (like OAuth) broke entirely.
---
## **3. Why Did Google Cloud’s Crash Affect Other Companies?**
Many apps rely on **Google Cloud’s backbone** for:
✔ **Authentication** (Google Sign-In, Firebase)
✔ **Data Hosting** (Spotify’s backend, Snapchat stories)
✔ **AI Processing** (YouTube’s recommendations, Gmail’s spam filters)
**Domino Effect Example:**
1. Google Cloud’s **US-East1 zone failed**.
2. Spotify’s **authentication servers (via Google OAuth) crashed**.
3. Users couldn’t log in—even though Spotify’s own servers were fine.
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## **4. How This Compares to Past Internet Outages**
| **Outage** | **Date** | **Duration** | **Cause** |
|------------|---------|-------------|----------|
| **Facebook/Meta Global Crash** | Oct 2021 | 6+ hours | BGP withdrawal |
| **AWS US-East Collapse** | Dec 2021 | 7 hours | Power failure |
| **Cloudflare DNS Failure** | Jul 2022 | 3 hours | Software bug |
| **Today’s Google Cloud Outage** | Jun 2024 | ~5 hours | BGP misconfig |
**Key Insight:** **Single-point cloud failures increasingly risk the entire internet.**
---
## **5. Which Countries Were Hit Hardest?**
Based on **Downdetector heatmaps**:
🔥 **United States** (40% of reports)
🔥 **India** (Google Search, YouTube down for 2M+ users)
🔥 **UK, Germany, Japan** (Spotify, Gmail disruptions)
---
## **6. Economic Impact: How Much Did the Outage Cost?**
- **Google’s lost ad revenue:** **~$150M/hour** (per Analysys Mason).
- **Spotify/Snapchat losses:** **$20M+ in subscriptions/ads**.
- **Small businesses** relying on Google Workspace **faced halted operations**.
---
## **7. How to Protect Yourself from Future Outages**
### **For Users:**
✔ **Enable offline modes** (Gmail Offline, Spotify downloads).
✔ **Use alternative logins** (email/password vs. Google OAuth).
### **For Businesses:**
✔ **Adopt multi-cloud backups** (AWS + Google Cloud + Azure).
✔ **Monitor third-party API dependencies**.
---
## **8. Google’s Next Steps: Can This Be Prevented?**
- **Postmortem report** expected within **72 hours**.
- **Compensation?** Likely **credits for Google Cloud customers** (not end-users).
- **Infrastructure overhaul** to reduce BGP risks.
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## **9. Final Verdict: A Wake-Up Call for Internet Resilience**
**Why This Outage Matters:**
✔ Shows **how fragile centralized cloud ecosystems are**.
✔ Highlights **need for decentralized web alternatives**.
**Rating of Severity:** **8.5/10** – Worse than AWS 2021, but faster recovery than Facebook’s 6-hour blackout.
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