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Office workers joked that the Microsoft outage could end their work week early, amid a wave of internet memes following the global crisis.
Industries across the UK have reported major disruption as a result of the outage, with aviation, rail and GP surgeries particularly affected by the technical issue.
The crash, believed to have been caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, also knocked Sky News off air this morning.
Users shared memes on X, including images of the so-called “blue screen of death” and jokes that the outage was an excuse to stay off work early for the weekend.
Other memes showed the world on fire – a reference to the massive domino effect hitting businesses around the world, including the world’s largest airports.
LEAVING WORK: A meme of a man desperately wanting to jump out of his workplace door, in an apparent joke that the power outage is an excuse to leave early for the weekend
A man in a flat cap smoking a cigarette walks away from a massive fire that has destroyed a large house, symbolizing the global impact of the power outage
A meme shows IT workers scratching their heads and twisting their faces during the crisis
BLUESCREEN: A man covered in a blue-brown tan – a reference to the “blue screen of death” that computers experience when they crash
Pandas represent people whose laptops turn blue due to global power outage
A meme shared online shows people surrounding a man being stoned to death, intended to represent IT workers
In this meme, technicians are working on overhead cables with a computer displaying a ‘blue screen’
The Las Vegas sphere is shown with a message that reads: ‘Your device has encountered a problem and needs to restart’
An employee jokes that “anyone who uses a computer for work should go home early today”
Another meme featuring a blue screen of death shows a computer with the message ‘Windows did not load correctly’