Netflix and no chill: Social media panic as streaming platform experiences worldwide outage

Netflix experienced a mass outage on Thursday, triggering commotion on social media, as thousands were forced to spend time doing things other than binge-watching their favorite TV shows.

The streaming platform was "experiencing issues streaming on all devices," according to a notice on Netflix’s website. In a statement posted on Twitter, Netflix apologized for the inconvenience and said it was working hard to resolve the problem. 

While the website now says it is no longer experiencing interruption to its service, the outage tracking website DownDetector still shows technical issues are being experienced mainly across Europe and the US.

© DownDetector

The outage also prompted the #NetflixDown hashtag as fans flocked to social media to express frustration and exasperation.

“I don’t know what to do with myself now that Netflix is down,” one user wrote, posting a screencap of a Netflix error message.

“Tomorrow’s headline: Productivity in America soars, the reason? #Netflixdown” another user joked. 

Another conspiracy-minded tweet suggested the whole thing might be down to some sneaky "sabotaging" by Apple's streaming service.

Yet, there were also calls for calm, with one cheeky user advising everybody to “just chill” – no Netflix required.

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