Google Public CA is down

Google’s Public CA—the service that hands out the little digital ID cards that give sites their padlock—hit pause today, with the official status page saying certificate issuance is halted and a fix should roll out in about eight hours. Translation: the web’s locksmith is on a coffee break, and the comments went full detective.

Within minutes, users started drawing red strings between outages. Two voices immediately pointed at YouTube, claiming the homepage and recommendations were wobbling. Another wondered if cloud app host Heroku’s hiccups were part of the same domino fall. Someone from Europe chimed in with “all is down in EU,” pouring gasoline on the “is the whole internet held together by one Google checkbox?” meme. Meanwhile, the calmer crowd just posted the status link like a digital “breathe” sign.

For non‑nerds: a certificate proves a website is legit and locks your connection. Stopping issuance doesn’t usually knock existing sites offline, but it can slow down new sites or renewals—cue admins sweating through their keyboards. The vibe in the thread swung between certpocalypse jokes and serious side‑eye at big‑tech single points of failure. Whether YouTube and Heroku were actually connected remains unproven—but the internet’s group chat already has its culprit picked.