Last mentioned: Feb 18, 2026
Initial Disruption
User reports of 'Something went wrong' errors begin to spike globally.
Peak Outage
Downdetector records over 338,000 reports; YouTube TV users report login failures.
Mitigation Begins
Reports drop to 150,000 as engineering teams begin addressing the recommendation system glitch.
Service Restoration
YouTube confirms homepage and core services are being restored to normal operation.
Full Recovery
Official confirmation that services are fully restored across all global platforms.
A massive technical failure in YouTube's recommendation algorithm triggered a global outage on Tuesday, affecting over 338,000 users at its peak. The disruption disabled video feeds and homepage content across YouTube and YouTube TV before engineers fully restored services.