What you need to know
In a striking turn of events, Cloudflare, a pivotal player in the realm of internet infrastructure, experienced a significant outage that disrupted a considerable portion of the global web. This incident, which unfolded around 6:00 am ET on November 18, 2025, was marked by widespread “500 errors” and internal server issues, effectively halting many online services.
The ramifications of this outage were felt across various sectors, as major platforms such as X, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and the creative tool Canva were rendered inoperable. Additionally, popular online games, including League of Legends, found themselves offline, highlighting the extensive reach of Cloudflare’s services in our daily digital interactions.
As the situation unfolded, it became evident that the outage was not merely a minor glitch but a significant disruption in the digital landscape. The irony of the moment was palpable; even services designed to monitor internet outages, like Downdetector, were affected, underscoring the severity of the situation.
Cloudflare acknowledged the gravity of the issue, stating that it was “investigating an issue which impacts multiple customers.” However, the company refrained from providing a specific explanation for the outage. Notably, there was scheduled maintenance at its Santiago (SCL) data center on the same day, from 12:00 to 15:00 UTC, which raises questions about potential correlations.
This incident serves as a reminder of the internet’s reliance on a handful of key infrastructure providers, drawing parallels to previous major disruptions, such as the well-documented failures of Amazon Web Services (AWS). While early reports indicated some recovery in regions like the UK, users in the US continued to encounter error messages, illustrating the ongoing challenges posed by this widespread outage.
