Home > National > Social Affairs

YouTube has global blackout for one hour after security update

Published: 16 Oct. 2025, 15:45 Updated: 16 Oct. 2025, 18:20

A teenager poses for a photo while holding a smartphone in front of a YouTube logo in this illustration taken Sept. 11. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

YouTube videos were unavailable worldwide for about an hour Thursday morning due to an error caused by a security update.

At around 8 a.m. Thursday Korea Standard Time (KST), users of YouTube's mobile app and other platforms began seeing a message that read “There was a problem with the server,” with the screen turning completely black, according to the IT industry.

Downdetector, an online service that tracks internet outages, reported that video playback issues on the YouTube app and website began at approximately 7:57 a.m. KST.

The number of outage reports peaked at 360,000 at 9:02 a.m. before gradually subsiding, according to Downdetector.

“An error occurred around 8 a.m. on Thursday that prevented some users from accessing YouTube and YouTube Music properly,” Google Korea said in a blog post. “The issue was swiftly resolved, and services were restored around 9 a.m. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Google Korea reported the incident to the government at 9:01 a.m., according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

YouTube's mobile app shows a black screen with the message, ″There was a problem with the server″ [SCREEN CAPTURE]

“While working on a security system update, we discovered that user requests, such as video playback and comment posting, were being blocked,” Google Korea said. “We rolled back the changes to resolve the issue.”

The service has since been fully restored.

Criticism was raised over the company’s delayed response, as it reported the outage to the government nearly an hour after it began. Under the Broadcasting and Communications Development Act, companies are required to report service disruptions or telecommunications emergencies to the Science Ministry without delay, within 10 minutes of occurrence.

That obligation stems from a revision of the law following a 2022 fire at Kakao’s data center, which designated companies such as Naver, Kakao, Samsung Electronics, Google, Meta Platforms, Netflix Services Korea and Amazon Web Services as essential telecommunications operators subject to disaster response regulations.

User comments are seen on the online forum Reddit regarding the YouTube outage on Oct. 16. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Complaints regarding the YouTube outage surfaced on various online communities both domestically and internationally Thursday morning.

A Reddit post titled “Is YouTube down?” drew over 2,000 comments, including, “The world just lost 90 percent of its entertainment. I’m freaking out,” and “The main thing is that the advertising runs without problems.”

“People are rushing to X to check if YouTube is down for others too,” read one post on X, formerly Twitter, among a flood of similar reactions.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG YONG-HWAN [[email protected]]