On May 7, 2026, the popular education platform Canvas was hacked, causing chaos among students, professors, and administrators across the world. The cybersecurity breach, which caused students’ and teachers’ sensitive information to potentially be exposed, led to the platform being shut down at thousands of schools for several hours. As of Friday, May 8, the app is running again for most users, but because of the incident, there have been changes in exam schedules, due dates for assignments have been postponed for some, and students should still proceed with caution while using the platform for the time being.
“We have confirmed that the unauthorized actor exploited an issue related to our Free-For-Teacher accounts,” Canvas’s parent company, Instructure, shared in a statement to Time. “As a result, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily shut down our Free-For-Teacher accounts. This gives us the confidence to restore access to Canvas, which is now fully back online and available for use.”
This temporary shutdown was definitely an inconvenience to students, especially because it happened right in the middle of many colleges’ final exams. The platform is used in schools across the world; according to USA Today, Canvas has more than 30 million active users worldwide and over 8,000 institutions as customers, so students everywhere were left without resources like notes or slideshows to help them study while prepping or taking exams.
But, in uncertain times, Gen Z does what they do best, and that’s cope using dark humor on the internet. Yup, rest assured, students took to TikTok and made videos poking fun at the situation. From venting, to highlighting the irony and ridiculousness of it all, to experiencing relief that they no longer have to sit and take a virtual exam that day, college students made it known how they feel about the whole Canvas shutdown, and let me just say that the wide range of reactions are pretty funny (and, honestly, relatable).
So if you want to get a good laugh, feel seen, or just see for yourself how unserious Gen Z is in stressful situations, here’s a roundup of students’ reactions to the Canvas hack.
Paul Revere is apparently UCLA’s new messenger. 🫡
I bet schools that don’t use Canvas feel really special right now.
How about you give everyone an A and we will be in our merry way?
The timing of this video is unmatched.
All I wanted was to submit my final research paper. Is that too much to ask?
Turning a finals week data breach into a last-minute nanocation — and who says it’s too late for seniors to create some unforgettable college memories?
I love this for this person. Maybe exams will be canceled?
They say pressure makes diamonds; nothing like a little last-minute stress to motivate you to study.
I also have no words. Like, what do we do now?
Extra time to finish this project hallelujah!
Good luck to all the Canvas users still out here taking final exams (because, apparently we really need it)!