Amazon cloud computing outage disrupts Snapchat, Ring and many other online services

Daniel Thorpe, of Hoboken, N.J., uses the Amazon app to pay for his purchase at the Amazon 4-star store in the Soho neighborhood of New York, on Sept. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

LONDON (AP) — Internet users around the world faced widespread disruption early on Monday because of a problem at Amazon’s cloud computing service that took down dozens of major online services, including social media site Snapchat, the Roblox and Fortnite video games and chat app Signal.

About three hours after the outage began, Amazon Web Services said it was starting to recover from the problem.

Amazon Web Services provides behind-the-scenes cloud computing infrastructure to many government departments, universities and businesses, including The Associated Press, which allows them to provide online services.