New Delhi, June 7 -- Thousands of users across the United States faced problems using YouTube on Friday after the platform went down unexpectedly around 1 p.m. Eastern Time.

The outage affected both the website and mobile app, with users reporting blank screens and failures to stream videos.

According to data from Downdetector, a site that tracks online service issues, the worst-hit areas include major cities such as New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

Users in these locations said they were unable to access video content, and in many cases, were met with empty screens when trying to use the platform.

Of the reports submitted, 79% related to problems with the website, 18% cited video streami...