Seoul: YouTube announced that it has resolved an issue that temporarily prevented access to its video-sharing platform, which affected hundreds of thousands of users globally, including in South Korea.
According to Yonhap News Agency, YouTube confirmed that the disruption stemmed from a problem with its recommendations system. The company assured users that all platforms, including YouTube.com, the YouTube app, YouTube Music, Kids, and TV, have returned to normal functionality.
Earlier, users encountered difficulties playing or watching videos on both mobile apps and desktop computers due to an error on YouTube. Google Korea reported the issue to the science ministry at 10:03 a.m., with the service disruption lasting approximately one hour until 11:07 a.m., according to officials.
At the height of the outage, Down Decker, a platform monitoring IT and social media service interruptions, received over 320,000 reports of issues related to YouTube. The incident gained particular attention in South Korea, occurring on the final day of the extended Lunar New Year holiday.
YouTube, managed by Google, remains the most popular video platform in South Korea.