YouTube suffers global outage leaving internet users at a loss

The popular video streaming service was down for more than an hour

BERLIN, GERMANY - OCTOBER 5: A young woman walks past a billboard advertisement for YouTube on October 5, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. YouTube has established itself as the biggest global platform for online video presentations.  (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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For the younger generation at least, there's a few things it can't live without - in particular access to the likes of WhatsApp, Netflix and YouTube.

So what happens when one of those is taken away? Like a toy being taken away from a child, there's a meltdown.

Last night YouTube went down for more than an hour, affecting locations around the world.

The company acknowledged the outage in a tweet, confirming that YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music were having access issues.

A further tweet was sent out thanking users for their patience and informing them that services had been restored, although it did not reveal what the problem was.

During the time it went offline, regular users of YouTube made it clear on social media that they were at a loss with what to do with themselves, while some took the opportunity to make light of the situation, including Philadelphia Police in the United States, which jokingly - or not, reminded resident this is not an emergency.

It then let local residents know when the "national nightmare" was over and likened the experience to "Beatlemania and Fortnite" rolled into one.

Disney meanwhile saw a chance for a marketing plug for its forthcoming movie Ralph Breaks The Internet, saying "It wasn't us" that broke YouTube.

And there were thousands of others making light of the situation.

YouTube was founded in 2005 and was bought by Google in 2006. It says its mission is to "give everyone a voice and show them the world".

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