Cloudflare outage today: Major websites affected as users unable to use apps; company issues statement

Users around the world experienced significant disruptions in Cloudflare’s services on Friday (December 5), triggering a surge of frustration and complaints on social media platform X. The outage affected numerous websites, including popular services like Canva and Downdetector, leaving users unable to access essential online tools. Several trading platforms, including Groww and Zerodha, were also impacted by the downtime. Cloudflare acknowledged the issue, citing problems with its Dashboard and associated Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and said that it was investigating the cause.

This is Cloudflare's second major disruption in less than a month. In November, a similar outage affected a wide range of platforms, including Spotify, ChatGPT, and even US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social. As a major provider of internet infrastructure, Cloudflare offers services designed to protect websites from cyberattacks and ensure they remain accessible during heavy traffic. Following the latest outage, social media was flooded with users expressing their frustration. Many shared how the disruption had impacted their work and businesses, with many demanding swift action and a permanent resolution.

What caused today’s Cloudflare outage?

Cloudflare said that the outage was due to an internal malfunction disrupting key parts of its network infrastructure. According to information shared publicly, problem led to slowdowns and instability across its services. Even Downdetector, the go-to site for monitoring online service failures, went down, showing just how big the disruption was. Users on X reported their apps crashing without warning and posted screenshots showing a variety of server error notices.

The incident drew even more attention after a viral post on social media joked about a “tiny tweak” by a new Cloudflare engineer supposedly triggering the chaos and the outage. Although the remark originated from X users and wasn’t an official statement, it captured the uncertainty and speculation that spread during the outage.