LONDON: Government, news and social media websites across the globe were coming back online Tuesday after being hit by a widespread outage linked to US-based cloud company Fastly Inc.
High traffic sites including Reddit, Amazon, CNN, Paypal, Spotify, Al Jazeera Media Network and the New York Times were all listed as experiencing problems by outage tracking website Downdetector.com, but appeared to be coming back up after outages that ranged from a few minutes to around an hour.
Fastly, one of the world’s most widely-used cloud based content delivery network providers, said “the issue has been identified and a fix has been applied. Customers may experience increased origin load as global services return.”
The company, which went public in 2019 and has a market capitalization of $5 billion, is far smaller than peers like Amazon’s AWS. It helps websites move content using less-congested routes, enabling them to reach consumers faster.
The United Kingdom’s attorney general earlier tweeted that the country’s main gov.uk website was down, providing an email for queries.
The disruption may have caused issues for citizens booking COVID-19 vaccinations or reporting test results, the Financial Times reported.
Fastly’s website said that most of its coverage areas had faced “Degraded Performance.” Error messages on several of the websites pointed to Fastly problems.
News publishers came up with inventive workarounds to report about the widespread outage when their websites failed to load up.
Popular tech website the Verge took to Google Docs to report news, while UK Technology Editor at the Guardian started a Twitter thread to report on the problems.
Nearly 21,000 Reddit users reported issues with the social media platform, while more than 2,000 users reported problems with Amazon, according to Downdetector.com.
Amazon’s Twitch was also experiencing an outage, according to Downdetector’s website.
websites operated by news outlets including the Financial Times, the Guardian, the New York Times and Bloomberg News also faced outages.
Websites rumble back to life after Fastly-linked outage
https://arab.news/nkj3h
Websites rumble back to life after Fastly-linked outage
- Many websites disrupted by outage at cloud company Fastly
- Dozens of high-traffic websites including the New York Times, CNN, Twitch and the UK govt's home page, could not be reached
Israel designates 5 Palestinian media platforms ‘terrorist organizations’
- Defense Minister Israel Katz issues ban on Al-Asima News, M3raj Network, Al-Quds Albawsala Network, Maydan Al-Quds, Plus Quds Network, accusing them of ‘incitement’
- Jerusalem-based digital outlets provide essential minute-by-minute coverage from the Old City, Palestinian neighborhoods, Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
LONDON: Israel has designated five Palestinian media platforms “terrorist organizations” over their coverage of Israeli measures in East Jerusalem, accusing them of “incitement.”
The Ministry of Defense issued a ban on Sunday on Al-Asima News, M3raj Network, Al-Quds Albawsala Network, Maydan Al-Quds, and Plus Quds Network.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Defense Minister Israel Katz had signed the order and that the attorney general “confirmed that there is no legal obstacle” to the move.
Israeli authorities said the outlets incited unrest by focusing on developments in East Jerusalem and at Al-Aqsa Mosque. They alleged that Hamas used the platforms to stir tensions among Palestinians during Ramadan.
Israeli authorities ordered internet service providers and social networking companies to block access to the specified accounts.
Al-Asima, one of the banned outlets, said on Monday it was suspending operations.
The network said: “In a new step added to Israel’s record of repression and gagging, the occupation has banned the work of several Jerusalem-based news networks in an attempt to isolate Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, monopolize them, and suppress their news from the world.
“This is not a retreat from our mission, but a measure to protect our journalists from the occupation’s brutality.”
The right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has intensified measures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since taking office at the end of 2022.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli authorities have imposed tighter restrictions on movement for West Bank residents at checkpoints leading into East Jerusalem.
The actions come amid a broader land-grab agenda that is expected to accelerate after the Israeli security cabinet approved measures to increase Israeli civilian authority in Areas A and B of the West Bank, which together make up about 40 percent of the territory.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has condemned those steps, warning they “will undoubtedly accelerate the dispossession of Palestinians and their forcible transfer,” and further deprive them of natural resources and other basic rights.
In this heavily fragmented environment — marked by checkpoints, gates and roadblocks — the Jerusalem-based digital outlets have played a key role, providing minute-by-minute coverage from the Old City, Palestinian neighborhoods and, crucially, the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
They have also documented daily realities often absent from mainstream media coverage, including home demolitions, land seizures, settler takeovers, arrests and repeated incursions into holy sites.
It remains unclear whether Israel’s move against the media platforms will be temporary or permanent.
However, concerns are growing that the action forms part of a wider effort to isolate the West Bank not only physically, but also by constraining Palestinian narratives, a trend likely to come under increased international scrutiny.
