100s of websites down globally as major glitch hits Cloudfare servers
Cloudflare Down: A number of web services including X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, OpenAI, Gemini, Perplexity, Uber, Canva, and several other websites and internet services witnessed a technical glitch as users reported issues while operating these platforms. According to reports, the disruption was caused by an outage in the Cloudflare server, a cybersecurity company.
What is Cloudflare?
Cloudflare is an American technology company that operates one of the world’s largest global cloud networks. It provides a wide range of services designed to make anything connected to the Internet more secure, private, fast, and reliable.
What is the Role of Cloudflare?
Cloudflare acts as a bridge between a website’s origin server and users. Its primary role is to re-route site traffic through its extensive network of data centres across 330 cities worldwide.
What are the key roles of Cloudfare:
Filter malicious trafficCache content closer to end-usersProvide a unified platform of servicesCloudflare’s servers are located across the world and support several popular websites including X, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Gemini, Perplexity, Under, Canva among others.
What Cloudflare Said on the Server Outage
Cloudflare acknowledged that a major widespread outage had hit its systems and said it was working to understand the impact.
In a statement, the company noted, “Cloudflare is aware of, and investigating an issue which impacts multiple customers: Widespread 500 errors, Cloudflare Dashboard and API also failing.”
It further added, “We are continuing to work on restoring service for application services customers.”
List of Sites Impacted After Cloudfare Outage
X, formerly TwitterChatGPTGemini Co-PilotLeague of LegendsSpotifyCanvaFootjetPhotocollagePerplexityGeminiGrindrLetterboxd
Is Down Detector Also Down?
Yes. Website tracking portal Down Detector, which monitors the status of online services, was itself affected due to the Cloudflare glitch.
What Cloudflare Said on the Exact Reason for the Outage
The company did not specify a particular reason but confirmed that it was facing widespread 500 errors, along with failures in the Cloudflare Dashboard and API.
What Does ‘Please Unblock Challenges.cloudflare.com to Proceed’ Mean? Prompt Appearing on Several Sites Amid Outage
As a major outage hit hundreds of websites and internet services supported by Cloudflare servers worldwide on Tuesday evening, a prompt reading “Please Unblock Challenges.cloudflare.com to Proceed” began appearing when users tried to access platforms such as X, Canva, or Discord.
This message has left many users confused, since they had not changed any settings before the outage, raising doubts about whether adjustments were needed on their end.
In simple terms, “Please Unblock Challenges.cloudflare.com to Proceed” is the domain Cloudflare uses to verify that a user is human and not a malicious bot. Due to this functioning, we tend to see all those “please ensure you are not a robot” types of messages when we user select internet services.