Zoom down across North America, parts of Europe
Zoom and other videoconferencing tools have become crucial during the pandemic, a form of connection for business, school and social groups when face-to-face interactions are discouraged or prohibited because of the coronavirus. Its stock has more than tripled since the beginning of the year.
The technical issues interrupted the first day of virtual classes for many schools, colleges and universities. Since the pandemic shuttered schools in March, the platform has been adapted by educators who teach everyone from squirmy preschoolers to doctoral students. Atlanta Public Schools, which has more than 50,000 students, was set to start the school year virtually Monday, but struggled with Zoom problems. So did Durham Public Schools in North Carolina and Pennsylvania State University, which has nearly 100,000 students.
“We have identified the issue causing users to be unable to start and join Zoom Meetings and Webinars and are working on a fix for this issue. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience,” Zoom said in a statement to The Washington Post. On social media the company is responding to people’s complaints with similar messages.
Zoom’s phone and chat services are still online, the company notes on the status page. The outages are tied to an authentication problem with Zoom’s website.
As with previous outages of office productivity software, like the workplace chat service Slack, the disruption was met with frustration but also exuberance. Without Zoom, there can be no meetings, at least some people hoped. And as working, learning and socializing from home has dragged on for many Americans, so has the burden of appearing “camera-ready,” of having strangers gaze into people’s most intimate spaces, and of carrying on simulated social interactions without physical and tactile cues, which can be exhausting in its own way.
Zoom has millions of users, and hundreds of thousands of businesses with at least 10 employees that pay for the service. More than 100,000 K-12 schools use Zoom at no cost for online learning.
Staff writer Moriah Balingit contributed to this report.
