It was confirmed that Google reported a YouTube service disruption to the Ministry of Science and ICT later than the reporting rules require.
According to the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 16th, Google Korea reported the YouTube access disruption to the government at about 9:01 a.m. Major broadcasting and telecommunications operators must report a communications disaster and its occurrence to the Ministry of Science and ICT within 10 minutes when a service disruption occurs, but Google Korea filed the report after that window.
The Ministry of Science and ICT, prompted by the Kakao data center fire in 2022, designated seven large platform operators including Google as major broadcasting and telecommunications operators, defining them as subject to the government's disaster management.
On this day, an error occurred worldwide, including in Korea, the United States, and Europe, in which videos would not play on YouTube, YouTube Music, and YouTube TV. In Korea, videos did not play when accessing YouTube on most devices, including smartphones, and YouTube Music also went dead.
Some users experienced ads playing and then a black error screen appearing, while others faced a situation where video playback itself was impossible.
The error is estimated to have appeared from 8:17 a.m. to 9:10 a.m.
The error occurred during an update to YouTube's spam-prevention security system and was later resolved through a rollback process, according to reports.