Spotify, Discord hit by mysterious outages after Biden cuts off Russian oil A phone displaying Spotify's log-in screen. (Pxhere photo/Released)
The popular music and podcast streaming service Spotify and messaging platform Discord both experienced major outages on Tuesday and the cause remains unknown. The outages come on the same day President Joe Biden ordered a ban on the import of Russian oil in the U.S.
Both popular apps announced their outages on Twitter at around 1:20 p.m. ET. Spotify tweeted, “Something’s not quite right, and we’re looking into it. Thanks for your reports!”
Something’s not quite right, and we’re looking into it. Thanks for your reports!
— Spotify Status (@SpotifyStatus) March 8, 2022
Discord also tweeted at around 1:20 p.m. ET, “We’re aware of an issue causing message failures and are working on a fix. Apologies for the disruption & thx for hanging tight!”
time to go outside everyone
— Discord (@discord) March 8, 2022
“Time to go outside everyone,” Discord said in a subsequent tweet.
Variety reported Spotify users were primarily experiencing issues accessing their accounts. The app’s users reportedly encountered a message that told them their username and password were incorrect. Spotify mobile users saw a message that said, “You’ve been logged out. Log back in to start listening.”
Many Spotify users trying to play songs also received a message that said, “We’re all mixed up. Refresh this page or try again later. It may take some time to get things up again.”
At around 2:40 p.m. ET, Spotify provided an update, stating that the issue was resolved.
“Everything’s looking much better now! Give @SpotifyCares a shout if you still need help,” the audio streaming service tweeted, referring users experiencing problems to the company’s official support account.
Everything’s looking much better now! Give @SpotifyCares a shout if you still need help.
— Spotify Status (@SpotifyStatus) March 8, 2022
At around 3 p.m. ET, Discord announced that its services were returning, though some would take longer to restore.
“Discord is back up and running for messages, calls, and streams! We are still working on a few things like attachments and typing events, but those should come back online soon,” Discord tweeted. “Thanks for the patience everyone.”
Discord is back up and running for messages, calls, and streams! We are still working on a few things like attachments and typing events, but those should come back online soon.
Thanks for the patience everyone~— Discord (@discord) March 8, 2022
In response to a Twitch ambassador and Discord partner who asked, “Can i come back inside,” Discord responded, “Yes you can come back inside now.”
yes you can come back inside now
— Discord (@discord) March 8, 2022
It was not immediately clear what caused the outages for the pair of tech companies on Tuesday. The outages did come on the same day Biden announced a ban on the U.S. import of Russian oil, as a punishment for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the conflict, there have been disruptions to web services on both sides.
Around the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, western intelligence officials assessed that Russian hackers reportedly targeted the U.S. and U.K. with malware attacks, the Guardian reported.
