On Thursday afternoon, a widespread internet disruption affected multiple major online platforms including Spotify, Google, Discord, and more, leaving tens of thousands of users without access. The issues originated from a service disruption linked to Google Cloud, according to Cloudflare, a key internet infrastructure provider.

The Ripple Effect of Cloud Failures

The outage began impacting users around midday, as reported by Downdetector, a real-time outage tracking website. At the height of the disruption, approximately 46,000 Spotify users, 11,000 Discord users, and 14,000 Google Cloud users experienced service problems. Other platforms including Snapchat and AI chat service Character.ai were also affected.

Cloudflare, whose tools help keep much of the web running smoothly, confirmed that the disruptions stemmed from a Google Cloud issue. “This is a Google Cloud outage,” a Cloudflare representative told CNN. “A limited number of services at Cloudflare use Google Cloud and were impacted. We expect them to come back shortly.” Cloudflare also reported that its Workers KV service—a key-value data storage solution—went offline as a result of the third-party outage.

Google Cloud’s Role in the Digital Ecosystem

Google Cloud is one of the largest cloud service providers in the world, reportedly handling about 25% of global internet traffic as of 2018. While it trails Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure in total market share, it remains an essential backbone for many applications and services.

By Thursday evening, Google stated that it had resolved the issue: “Following a disruption to a number of Google Cloud services, all products have now been fully restored,” a spokesperson said. Spotify confirmed it was impacted and pointed CNN to Google Cloud’s dashboard for more information.

A Recurring Theme in Internet Infrastructure

This isn’t the first time infrastructure-level outages have had such a broad impact. In 2021, an AWS outage disrupted services ranging from food delivery to smart home devices. Similarly, a Cloudflare outage in 2020 also caused a wide-scale breakdown of internet services.

In recent weeks, the digital world has seen several high-profile outages—including interruptions at ChatGPT and the social media platform X—signaling just how interconnected and fragile internet infrastructure can be.

As of late Thursday, Downdetector began reporting a sharp decline in issue reports, suggesting that most impacted services were on the path to recovery. Still, the event underscores the risks of relying on centralized cloud providers to support the global digital experience.