Amazon Restores Services After Multiple Users Face Outage

Multiple users experienced a brief outage at Amazon's platforms including Alexa and Prime Video late Wednesday before services were restored, according to outage monitoring website Downdetector.

More than 6,200 user reports had indicated issues with Amazon's online store site, as of 1:48am GMT (7:18am IST), while about 1,700 users reported problems with Prime Video and more than 400 with Alexa, according to Downdetector.

Outage reports dropped significantly to double digits on the platforms in a little over an hour, Downdetector showed.

The issue affecting the sites was not immediately clear. Amazon did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform.

On June 23, Amazon and Google were pressed by US Senator Amy Klobuchar about how their smart home devices and virtual assistants will support competition and user privacy.

In a letter, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee said testimony last week by attorneys from the companies left her with concerns about their dominance of the fast-growing field.

She asked the companies which of their products will support - and which will not - a recently revamped industry alliance known as Matter. The group, which includes Apple, Ikea, and others, aims to allow home-automation gadgets such as Internet-connected lights and speakers from various companies to sync with one another.

"For what period of time do you commit to support the Matter interoperability project, and who at your companies is responsible for determining whether to extend the length of your commitment to Matter?" Klobuchar wrote to Amazon and Google.

She called on the companies by July 2 also to answer questions about data collection by voice assistants and how the information is used.

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