Don't panic! YouTube back up and running after worldwide outage

People around the world panicked as the video website YouTube crashed. Photo / 123RF

YouTube is back up and running after a two-hour long worldwide outage.

YouTube shared a statement on Twitter clarifying that the website is now working.

"We're back! Thanks for all of your patience. If you continue to experience issues, please let us know."

We're back! Thanks for all of your patience. If you continue to experience issues, please let us know. https://t.co/NVU5GP7Sy6

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 17, 2018

People around the world were panicking as the video-sharing website crashed around 2.16pm.

Videos were not playing on the website and they were showing an error message asking people to return later.

Videos are not playing on the website and are showing an error message asking people to return later.

YouTube previously announced on Twitter that it was aware of the issues and was working to resolve them.

Thanks for your reports about YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music access issues. We're working on resolving this and will let you know once fixed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and will keep you updated.

— TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) October 17, 2018

People took to Twitter to share their dismay during the outage.

You don’t realize how much YouTube you actually watch until the site goes down. pic.twitter.com/3r4d9FY4VN

— FatboiDeV (@KlipschRVA) October 17, 2018

A live map showed the YouTube outage hotspots across the United States; the northeast was hit particularly hard. It also appeared to be down for users in Australia and New Zealand.

According to Down Detector, the outage appears to have started about 2.16pm.

Live outage map of where youtube is down (from downdetector) pic.twitter.com/tzU1Nv0N7q

— margie⁷ (@bunnietaehyung) October 17, 2018