Verizon said Tuesday's outage impacting Fios users was caused by a fiber line cut by a fallen tree in Brooklyn

• Verizon confirmed that Tuesday's outage was caused by a fiber cut in Brooklyn, NY.
• The outage was concentrated along the East Coast, and more than 2,000 users reported issues with Verizon's Fios service on DownDetector.
• A Verizon spokesperson said internet service "has been restored."

Verizon has confirmed that Tuesday's Fios outage was caused by a downed fiber cable cut by a falling tree in Brooklyn, NY.

"Yesterday there was a broad internet issue that caused a temporary degradation of Fios service to customers in the Northeast for just under an hour," a Verizon spokesperson told Insider in an email. "There was an unrelated fiber cut that impacted a very small number of customers in Brooklyn, NY. The cause of the cut was a tree falling on the cable and service has been restored."

Users from Boston to Washington DC complained of spotty or inaccessible internet access. Verizon Support tweeted in response to a customer complaint that there was indeed a fiber cut in Brooklyn.

More than 2,000 users reported issues with accessing Verizon's Fios internet service on DownDetector Tuesday, and many aired their grievances with the interruption on Twitter.

Online outages have taken on new meaning during the pandemic as scores of people rely more heavily on remote work tools. On the first workday of 2021, Slack went down for many users, who were unable to load channels and send messages on the chat platform.

Read more: 10 industries booming during the pandemic that are hiring for fully remote jobs right now

As CNN notes, the US Federal Communications Commission joined the conversation Tuesday and said it was also investigating an issue that was interrupting the work and school day for many.

"We have seen reports of internet-related outages on the East Coast, making it difficult for people to work remotely and go to school online," FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a tweet. "The @FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is working to get to the bottom of what is going on."