A significant technical failure at Cloudflare, one of the world’s most critical internet infrastructure providers, briefly plunged portions of the global internet into chaos on November 18. Major platforms including X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, Spotify, and even Downdetector-the very tool people rely on to check whether a website is down-were disrupted as Cloudflare grappled with what it later described as an internal service degradation triggered by a surge in “unusual traffic.”

While the issue was resolved within hours, the incident served as yet another reminder of the fragility of the modern internet and the enormous influence wielded by just a handful of infrastructure companies.

Shortly before noon UTC, Cloudflare posted a message on its status page stating that it was “experiencing an internal service degradation” and that engineers were working to identify the cause. Within minutes, the effects rippled across the world.

Websites that rely on Cloudflare’s services began failing intermittently. Users trying to access X encountered loading errors, chatbot interactions on OpenAI’s ChatGPT stalled, and Spotify experienced outages for numerous users. Even Downdetector-ironically among the most frequently used platforms during internet disruptions-suffered downtime, preventing millions from verifying the extent of the issue.

Such disruptions can be particularly alarming because Cloudflare is not just another tech company hosting a few high-traffic websites-its infrastructure underpins a substantial portion of the internet itself. The company provides security services, content delivery, traffic routing, and protection against cyberattacks for nearly 20% of all websites globally, from government portals and banks to entertainment........

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