Hundreds of thousands of Reddit users reported issues with the social media site today amid a major service outage.
The problems began around 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday and affected people across the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.
Users visiting the site’s homepage this afternoon were met with a Reddit message that read: “Server error. Please try again later.”
More than 150,000 people have reported problems on tracking website Downdetector, which is likely a vast undercount of the total number of affected users.
Reddit went down around 4 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday for users around the world.
A heatmap shows where most users had difficulty accessing the site.
Reddit said it was “currently investigating” the issue, which affects desktop users and mobile web and app users.
This comes just weeks after the social media site suffered a global outage on August 13 that prevented people from accessing their accounts.
The problem was resolved within hours.
Earlier this year in March, Reddit shares surged as much as 70 percent when the social media site made its long-awaited debut on the stock market.
The 19-year-old company, which hosts thousands of niche online communities, priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $34 per share, a move that sent Reddit’s stock value soaring to nearly $9 billion by the end of its Wall Street debut.
Aside from its quirky content, Reddit is also famous for the “meme stock” saga of 2021, when a group of retail investors on the “Wall Street Bets” subreddit collaborated to buy shares of heavily shorted companies like GameStop and AMC.
In a nod to Redditors, the company reserved 8 percent of the shares on offer for eligible users and moderators, certain board members, and friends and family of its employees and directors.
This cordial relationship with its user base, which frequently turns to Reddit’s enthusiast communities for answers to their most pressing questions, was on full display during the outage.
‘Now how the hell am I supposed to search for stuff on Google when Reddit isn’t working?’ A user joked on social networking site X.
