Starlink Outage Triggers Meme Frenzy as Millions Lose Internet Globally

SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service saw a rare global outage on Thursday, July 24, disrupting about six million customers in over 120 countries and territories. It happened just a day after Starlink went live with text and location-sharing support.

The outage started at about 4 p.m. ET and continued for about three hours. The disruption affected residential customers, businesses, and remote users who depend on Starlink's low-Earth orbit satellite constellation for their internet connections.

What's the Root Cause of the Starlink Outage

Starlink Outage Triggers Meme Frenzy as Millions Lose Internet Globally

As of 7 p.m. ET, Starlink announced on X that service had "mostly recovered." According to Digital Trends, the company blamed the outage on a "failure of primary internal software services that run the core network," implying that an important backend system failed and triggered a chain reaction of service outages.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk publicly commented on the issue on X, saying that the service will come soon. He also apologized for the inconvenience that the Starlink outage caused.

Starlink then issued a more descriptive statement:

"We apologize for the temporary disruption in our service; we are deeply committed to providing a highly reliable network and will fully root cause this issue and ensure it does not occur again."

Why Starlink Outage is a Big Deal For the Users

Although internet disruptions are not new in the tech world. Starlink's unprecedented service outage is notable given its worldwide scope and increasing reliance. With millions of customers relying on Starlink for vital connectivity in rural and underserved communities, the disruption sparked worries regarding network resilience and operational monitoring.

The quick recovery of the company and recognition of the issue are comforting. At the same time, it highlights the fragility of software-based internet systems for satellites, particularly as the need for decentralized and space-based connectivity increases.

Starlink Outage Memes Are Here

Some Starlink users complained about the internet downtime, while other customers took to social media to express their anger—and humor. Memes targeting Elon Musk and the sudden return to offline existence soon made the rounds online, such as the following:

While connectivity issues are automatically annoying, many users found comedic relief during the outage. However, that does not apply to everyone.

The newly improved Starlink internet is twice as fast as before. However, it still did not pass the FCC's minimum requirements.