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A widespread technical failure at internet infrastructure giant Cloudflare caused a major global outage on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, knocking popular platforms like ChatGPT, X (formerly Twitter), and numerous news sites offline for hours.
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The disruption, which began around noon in Nigeria, highlighted the web’s reliance on a few key service providers, coming just weeks after a historic Amazon Web Services (AWS) crash.
Websites and Services Impacted
The outage affected a significant number of websites that depend on Cloudflare’s cybersecurity and content delivery services. Users across Nigeria and other regions experienced widespread issues, including:
- ChatGPT:Â The AI chatbot failed to load for hours, with systems reporting a server failure in London.
- X (Twitter):Â The social media platform experienced significant delays and loading errors.
- News Outlets:Â Several media organizations, including IT Edge News.Africa, were completely knocked off cyberspace.
- Other Services:Â Tools like Duplichecker were rendered completely inaccessible.
Cause: A Mysterious Traffic Spike
Cloudflare officials confirmed they were investigating a major “spike in unusual internet traffic” that began at 11:20 AM. This anomaly caused elevated errors across multiple Cloudflare services, preventing normal traffic from passing through their network reliably.
A company spokesperson stated, “The cause of the spike in unusual traffic remains unknown, but efforts are ongoing to make sure all traffic is served without errors.” They noted that while most traffic flowed without issue, the errors were widespread enough to cause significant disruptions.
A Pattern of Internet Fragility
This incident underscores the fragility of the modern internet, which is heavily dependent on a handful of critical infrastructure providers. The Cloudflare outage echoes the massive disruption caused by an Amazon Web Services failure just weeks prior, raising fresh concerns about concentration and resilience in the core systems that power the web.
