Elon Musk-owned microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) experienced a significant global outage on Tuesday, leaving thousands of users unable to access their feeds or load posts. The disruption, which began around 5:20 pm IST, appears to be linked to a broader issue impacting services relying on Cloudflare’s internet infrastructure.
Cloudflare Network Error Affects Multiple Sites
According to Down Detector, a service that tracks outages by aggregating user reports, over ten thousand users reported issues with X around the peak of the incident. Users attempting to access the platform were met with frustrating errors, including problems related to their feeds, website access, log-in attempts, and server connections.
Crucially, many affected users were greeted with an “internal server error on Cloudflare’s network,” suggesting the problem extended beyond just the X platform. The outage was not isolated, with several other major websites that rely on the same Cloudflare infrastructure facing similar connectivity issues simultaneously.
Cloudflare Acknowledges and Investigates
Cloudflare, a key provider of web performance and security services, issued a prompt initial update confirming the disruption. The company stated it was “aware of, and investigating an issue which potentially impacts multiple customers,” although it did not immediately disclose the cause or provide an estimated timeline for a resolution.
“We are working to understand the full impact and mitigate this problem. More updates to follow shortly,” Cloudflare added in their statement. The immediate cause of the network error remains under investigation, leaving many questions about the nature of the widespread connectivity issues.
Recurring Outages for the Platform
This marks a major disruption for the platform, which faced another significant outage earlier in May. During that previous incident, thousands of users were locked out for hours. At the time, X owner Elon Musk alleged that a “powerful cyberattack” requiring “a lot of resources” was responsible, hinting at the potential involvement of a large group or even a state actor.
As of the latest reports, engineers are working to restore service fully. Users globally are being advised to “try again later” as the technical teams at Cloudflare and X collaborate to mitigate the network-wide problem and ensure platform stability is restored. The incident underscores the fragility of large-scale internet infrastructure and the ripple effect a single point of failure can have across major global platforms.
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Cloudflare Fix Underway: X and Other Major Platforms Recovering from Global Outage
The global outage that crippled the X platform and a wide swath of the internet on Tuesday appears to be resolving, with infrastructure giant Cloudflare announcing that recovery efforts are underway. The mass disruption, which began around 5:00 pm IST, saw over ten thousand users reporting issues on X (formerly Twitter) as well as impacting other critical services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Spotify.
Internal Service Degradation Identified
The root cause of the widespread “500 Internal Server Errors” was traced back to an “internal service degradation” within Cloudflare’s network, the primary platform providing content delivery and security for numerous websites. The company, which initially stated it was investigating an issue impacting multiple customers, later released updates confirming they had identified the problem.
A Cloudflare spokesperson noted that the company saw “unusual traffic” to one of its services, but the exact cause of that spike is still under investigation. The outage underscored the deep reliance of the modern internet on a handful of key infrastructure providers, as the Cloudflare failure immediately triggered cascading problems across the web.
Services Begin to Recover
Cloudflare’s latest updates indicate that services are beginning to return to normal. “We are seeing services recover, but customers may continue to observe higher-than-normal error rates as we continue remediation efforts,” read an update on their status page. This slow but steady return to stability is being observed by users on X, where posts and feeds are slowly becoming accessible, though intermittent errors may persist.
The platform was not alone in its struggle. Other high-traffic services, including the AI chatbot ChatGPT, gaming platforms like League of Legends, and financial services, were also severely affected by the network disruption. The incident forced many users to temporarily seek alternatives for essential online tasks.
A Recurring Issue for X
This latest outage adds to a history of instability for X, which also experienced major global downtime earlier in the year. The recurring technical hurdles pose a challenge to the platform’s new direction under Elon Musk, who, after a previous disruption in May, alleged a powerful cyberattack was the cause.
While the immediate crisis appears to be over with services recovering, Cloudflare continues to work to understand the full impact and the root cause of the “unusual traffic” to prevent future occurrences. The incident serves as a stark reminder of the technical fragility underpinning the digital world and the domino effect a single network failure can have.
