Why Was YouTube Down? Google Confirms Issue In First Statement

18th February 2026 at 8:47 AM

1 minute read

California : On Tuesday, the video-sharing giant YouTube faced a significant service disruption that affected users around the world, with reports of errors and limited access from places including India and the United States. At the height of the problem, hundreds of thousands of people logged complaints about being unable to load videos or use key features of the platform, according to outage-tracking data.

As the outage unfolded, Google acknowledged the situation through a message from its TeamYouTube account, stating: “We’re aware some of you are having issues accessing YouTube right now. Our teams are aware, and we’ll provide updates as soon as we have them.” The company did not immediately explain what caused the interruption.

If you’re having trouble accessing YouTube right now, you’re not alone — our teams are looking into this and will follow up here with updates: https://t.co/7iTU5S9AgT
— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) February 18, 2026

Service-monitoring site Downdetector recorded a dramatic spike in problem reports worldwide, with over 320,000 in the U.S. at the peak and thousands more coming from other regions, including India and Europe. Users attempting to access YouTube often encountered a “Something went wrong” message, with videos failing to play and home screens not loading properly.

Complaints were also filed about related services such as YouTube TV, suggesting the disruption may have extended across parts of Google’s platform ecosystem. Data from Downdetector is based on user submissions and may not capture every affected individual, but it provides a clear indication of the scale and global reach of the outage.

Meanwhile, social media channels quickly filled with posts from frustrated users sharing screenshots of errors and noting that the disruption was happening simultaneously in multiple countries. Google has said it will update users as it continues to investigate and address the problem.

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