YouTube Glitch Leaves 320,000 Users Facing Blank Screens

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A glitch in YouTube's recommendation algorithm left over 320,000 users across the US and 30,000 more in the UK facing blank screens on the platform's main site, mobile apps, and connected TV services for nearly 2 hours during prime viewing time. The outage exposed how dependent viewers have become on AI-driven content discovery for their daily digital entertainment.

Why it matters

The YouTube outage highlighted how much we've come to rely on algorithmic recommendations to guide our digital entertainment choices. When the platform's recommendation engine malfunctioned, millions of users simply stopped watching, underscoring how fragile our viewing habits have become in the age of AI-powered content discovery.

The details

The issue was not caused by server overload or a cyberattack, but rather a malfunction in YouTube's recommendation algorithm that powers homepages, video suggestions, and other key features across the platform. Without the algorithm providing personalized recommendations, the site and apps were rendered essentially unusable, leaving users staring at blank screens.

• The outage began around 7:45 PM ET on February 18, 2026.
• YouTube acknowledged the issue within minutes and began restoring partial service over the next 2 hours.
• Full resolution came around 10:00 PM ET, roughly 2 hours after the outage started.