[UPDATE: As of 12:00 AM Eastern, most YouTube functions have returned to normal. The outage lasted approximately two hours. Although some DownDetector user reports still indicated possible issues with the desktop and mobile sites, all YouTube services are back online. YouTube has not officially commented on the site's earlier issues. The original story is as follows.]
YouTube, the world's most popular video website, is experiencing worldwide technical issues and is down for most users. YouTube users took to social media to discuss the problem and have reported that the outage affects both the desktop and mobile versions of Google's video service.
As the worldwide leader in user-submitted video content, YouTube videos have been a global pastime since the 2000s. Along with Shorts and long-form videos, YouTube has grown into a popular streaming service. Additionally, users can watch traditional TV shows and movies via the YouTube TV subscription service. Although YouTube's policies have been controversial, that has not stopped users from coming back to watch their favorite content creators on the platform.
YouTube Users Report Widespread Site Outage
However, YouTube users looking to catch up on some videos are unable to do so at the time of this writing. User reports on DownDetector indicated that YouTube has been experiencing a massive service outage since 7:40 PM Eastern. By 8:10 PM Eastern, 338,308 user reports on DownDetector were posted about the ongoing YouTube outage. Although some features, such as the Subscriptions tab and direct channel pages, still work, the home pages of YouTube and YouTube TV are inaccessible for most users.
YouTube is partially down. You can view videos and channels directly, but the main homepage, shorts feed, and any recommended videos are not loading — Tom Warren (@tomwarren.co.uk) 2026-02-18T01:14:11.498Z
This is a developing news story. Information about the YouTube outage will be updated here as soon as it becomes available.