HT Digital,
New Delhi, May 23: On Thursday, a significant outage disrupted multiple Microsoft services worldwide, including Bing Search, Copilot, and ChatGPT, with a notable impact on users in India. The outage extended to third-party services like DuckDuckGo, which depend on Microsoft’s infrastructure.
Social media platforms were flooded with user reports about the disruption, particularly from Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai, where accessing these services proved challenging.
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Data from the outage tracking site Downdetector revealed that 57% of users encountered issues accessing the Bing website, 34% faced problems with the search function, and 9% experienced login difficulties.
One user on the platform X stated, “It’s not just you: Microsoft’s services are down in some regions. #Bing is down, #Copilot/Copilot in Windows is down. DuckDuckGo is not working because it uses Bing. Similarly, ChatGPT’s internet search is also down.” Another user noted, “Microsoft Copilot and Bing Down: Users Encounter Connection Errors,” while others echoed the sentiment with comments like, “Anyone else having problems with Bing? I keep getting this today.”
Despite the absence of an official statement from Microsoft regarding the outage, it appears that most affected services have since been restored and are now functioning globally.
In a related development, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs imposed fines on LinkedIn India, its parent company Microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella, and eight other individuals for violating the Significant Beneficial Owner (SBO) norms under the Companies Act, 2013. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in December 2016. A detailed 63-page order from the Registrar of Companies (NCT of Delhi & Haryana) indicated that LinkedIn India and the implicated individuals failed to comply with SBO reporting requirements.
Satya Nadella and Ryan Roslansky, identified as the SBOs of LinkedIn India, face penalties under section 90(10) of the Act for not adhering to the disclosure mandates outlined in section 90(1). Roslansky, who became the global CEO of LinkedIn Corporation on June 1, 2020, reports directly to Nadella. Section 90 of the Companies Act requires companies to disclose details of their significant beneficial owners.
