A significant internet outage on Tuesday, November 18, left users around the world unable to access some of the most popular websites and services. The disruption impacted a wide range of platforms, including social media giant X, music streaming service Spotify, and even the popular outage-tracking site DownDetector, making it difficult for users to confirm the scale of the problem. The source of the widespread issue was traced back to Cloudflare, a critical company that powers internet requests for millions of websites.
Cloudflare, which manages and secures traffic for roughly 20 percent of the entire web, acknowledged the problem in a public statement. The company reported it was “aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers.” A spokesperson noted that they had observed a “spike in unusual traffic” but did not yet know the cause. The company assured users that teams were “all hands on deck” to restore normal service and ensure traffic could be served without errors.
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The list of affected services was extensive, highlighting Cloudflare’s integral role in the modern internet. Alongside X and Spotify, other major platforms like OpenAI (which includes ChatGPT), the authentication service Authy, the design platform Canva, and the gaming service League of Legends reported issues. The financial impact was immediate, with shares of Cloudflare sliding by more than five percent in premarket trading following the announcement of the outage. This event serves as a stark reminder of the internet’s reliance on a few key infrastructure providers, coming just weeks after a separate Amazon Web Services outage caused similar global disruptions.
