{"id":436825,"date":"2026-02-20T22:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436825\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:10:10","slug":"chaos-online-as-cloudflare-outage-crashes-half-of-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436825\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaos online as Cloudflare outage crashes half of the internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 13:50 EST, 20 February 2026 | Updated: 14:55 EST, 20 February 2026 <\/p>\n

Cloudflare is experiencing a massive outage<\/a>, knocking dozens of major websites offline worldwide.<\/p>\n

Cloudflare provides security, performance, and routing services for millions of websites, helping connect users to online services through its global network.\u00a0When Cloudflare experiences outages, large parts of the internet can be disrupted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Issues hit at 1.45pm ET, impacting a range of sites, including Uber<\/a>, Workday and Microsoft<\/a>\u00a0Outlook.<\/p>\n

Many users have reported error messages when clicking links on the web, with alerts showing an ‘Internal server error’ and blaming the issue on a local Cloudflare data center.<\/p>\n

The public has shared their frustrations online, with one X user saying: ‘Cloudflare, come on! This is getting ridiculous. How many times have you had issues in the past few months? It’s causing so much chaos!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cloudflare has acknowledged the issues, reporting that customers are seeing an unusually high number of 403 error messages, which means the website is blocking access to the page instead of loading normally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Cloudflare is investigating issues with our services and\/or network,’ the company shows on its system status page.<\/p>\n

‘Users may experience errors or timeouts reaching Cloudflare\u2019s network or services. We will update this status page to clarify the scope of impact as we continue the investigation.’<\/p>\n

\"Cloudflare <\/p>\n

Cloudflare experienced a massive outage on Friday, knocking dozens of major websites offline and briefly exposing millions of users to privacy risks\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Issues <\/p>\n

Issues hit at 1.45pm ET, affecting a range of sites, including Uber , Workday and Microsoft Outlook<\/p>\n

Cloudflare runs a huge network of servers spread across more than 330 cities in over 120 countries.<\/p>\n

These servers help websites load faster, stay secure and handle traffic smoothly.<\/p>\n

Its system is extremely powerful, handling massive amounts of data and connecting to more than 13,000 internet networks, including the biggest internet providers, cloud services, and major companies around the world.<\/p>\n

The outages struck the middle of the workday for millions of Americans, sending them to social media to share their frustrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Cloudflare is really not dependable, huh,’ an X user posted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another shared: ‘Uber Eats is down, and I\u2019m trying to figure out what imma eat for lunch GET IT TOGETHER.’<\/p>\n

One user having issues with Workday said: ‘Workday is down when I\u2019m about to go for lunch. I\u2019ll just go home [right now], please don\u2019t play with me.’<\/p>\n

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