AWS is down: February 16 outage explained

Following reports of widespread digital disruptions on February 16, 2026, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has officially clarified that its systems remained operational throughout the period, attributing the perceived instability to external service issues.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect official statements from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Our initial report on February 16 was based on real-time spikes in Downdetector data and a simultaneous global outage at X, which suggested a regional AWS infrastructure event.

However, AWS has since clarified that its systems remained fully operational throughout the period. According to AWS, the reported instability was a “false positive” likely triggered by separate issues at Cloudflare.

Initial reports on February 16 suggested a spike in technical issues for AWS. According to Downdetector data, incident reports climbed sharply at 4:46 PM, closely following a massive global failure at X. However, AWS communications has since confirmed to Dataconomy that the platform continued to operate normally.

Industry analysis suggests the surge in reports was likely a “cascading effect” caused by issues at other infrastructure levels. Specifically, Cloudflare acknowledged service issues on the same day. Because so many platforms rely on a stack of different providers, a failure at the CDN (Content Delivery Network) level can often trigger automated or user-generated reports for the hosting provider (AWS), even if the latter is functioning perfectly.

In an update provided to Dataconomy, an AWS spokesperson stated:

“AWS continues to operate normally. There are no issues with AWS… When one internet provider has a bad day, [tracking services] routinely display a false positive spike in reports for unaffected providers.”

While Downdetector serves as a high-speed barometer for user frustration, this event highlights the importance of cross-referencing with official provider dashboards. Moving forward, developers and businesses are encouraged to monitor the primary health sources for cloud infrastructure:

• AWS Health Dashboard: health.aws.amazon.com

• Google Cloud Status: status.cloud.google.com

• Azure Status: azure.status.microsoft

The interdependence of the modern web means that when one giant like Cloudflare or X wobbles, the ripple effects can make it appear as though the entire cloud is under strain, even when the core servers remain stable.

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