• by Tanya Gazdik , March 17, 2024

McDonald's locations across the world were forced to temporarily close over the weekend due to a technological issue.

Computers and kiosks went black and customers were unable to order or pay, according to Cybernews..

“The company said the outage was caused by a third-party technology provider and was not a cybersecurity issue,” according to The Associated Press. “It started around 12 a.m. CDT during a configuration change and was close to being resolved about 12 hours later.”

IT issues were reported at locations in the U.S. Australia, China including Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan and Germany, according toNewsweek. 

Customers joked about the cause of the issue.

“Is it the McFlurry machine? Did a vegetarian get their revenge? Were global politics to blame?” according to USA Today.  “I didn’t feel like Maccas until news of the global outage. Now all I can think about is a Fillet-O-Fish, wrote another user on X, calling McDonald's its Australian nickname.”

The fast-food giant said the outage was caused during a "configuration change,” according to Reuters.

McDonald’s has more than 41,800 stores around the world, with nearly 13,500 in the United States, its biggest market. McDonald's did not comment on the number of stores impacted.

“The outage adds to a shaky start to the year for McDonald’s,” according to CNN. “During its latest earnings presentation last month, the company said the war in the Middle East was hurting its business and would likely continue to do so. Like other American brands, it has been hit by boycotts in several markets in the region.”

Customers didn’t take the downtime well, as one Reddit user, who claims to be a shift manager, shared on a forum dedicated to McDonald's employees, according to Cybernews. 

“We’re now having to take orders via paper, and then paying by cash,” per Cybernews. “Already been yelled at by seven people, so I’m loving this, Reddit user Portalguy9107 said.”