Reddit Suffers Major Outage, Affecting Users Globally
On November 20, 2024, Reddit experienced a significant technical disruption that affected users worldwide. Beginning around 3 p.m. ET, nearly 50,000 reports flooded Downdetector highlighting accessibility issues. The problem, attributed to a bug from a recent update, impacted the website, mobile platforms, and native applications. Users faced error messages, slow loading times, and irregular access, pushing many to switch to alternative social media sites like Bluesky, which also experienced minor outages due to increased traffic. Reddit scrambled to fix the issue and managed to restore much of the service by evening, although some functionalities still faced delays. This event underscores the critical role Reddit plays in online communication and its ongoing technical challenges.