Zoom down: App suffers outage as users report audio and video problems

Outage monitor records thousands of reports of issues

Andy Gregory
Sunday 17 May 2020 13:15 BST
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Zoom down: App suffers outage as users report audio and video problems

Video conferencing service Zoom is down after users reported experiencing audio and video problems.

Social media was awash with users reporting they were experiencing problems with audio, video, admitting people into meetings or logging in themselves.

Thousands of people have reported problems with the site since 9am, mainly in the UK, according to the website DownDetector.

The tech company has not yet acknowledged the outage, which came as churches attempted to hold their Sunday services on the site, prompting one Twitter user to joke: “Looks like the church broke the internet.”

“Imagine if door locks in churches across the country jammed simultaneously on a Sunday morning,” Reverend Simon Harvey, a vicar based in Bury St Edmonds, wrote on Twitter.

Liberal Democrat politicians were also reportedly affected by Sunday’s outage, with one West Yorkshire councillor lamenting it had disrupted the Wakefield Lib Dems’ virtual coffee morning with acting leader Sir Ed Davey.

In a side of what a mainstay of communication the site has become, another social media user joked: “Zoom is down. The apocalypse is well and truly here.”

Zoom has become a staple for many during the coronavirus crisis, with millions using the site to connect with friends, family or colleagues amid lockdown restrictions.

On 22 April, the tech firm reported a 50 per cent surge in users over a three-week period and said it had hit 300 million daily users.

However, it was later forced to clarify that it in fact had 300 million daily “meeting participants”, which meant individual users could be counted more than once.

“This was a genuine oversight on our part,” a spokesperson told CBNC on 28 April, when the company’s share prices dropped by as much as 8.7 per cent and it entered the Nasdaq 100 – the stock market index comprising 100 of the largest international non-financial firms.

Zoom has been contacted for comment.

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