On December 5, 2025, many popular websites around the world went down for a short time. The problem was traced back to Cloudflare, a major internet infrastructure company that helps keep websites online and secure. Cloudflare later reported that it had found the issue, released a fix, and was closely monitoring the results.
The outage hit large platforms such as LinkedIn, Coinbase, and Substack. For many users, pages would not load, dashboards returned error messages, or services felt slow and unstable. While the disruption did not last very long, it was a clear reminder of how dependent the internet is on a few key providers.
What Happened With Cloudflare?
Cloudflare announced that there was a problem with its dashboard and related apps. This dashboard is a core tool that businesses use to manage their websites, security settings, and traffic routing. When it has issues, it can create a ripple effect across many online services that rely on it.
As news of the problem spread, Cloudflare’s stock dropped as much as 4.5% in premarket trading. Investors reacted quickly to the disruption, worried about the impact on the company’s reputation and reliability. However, when Cloudflare reported that it had “implemented a fix” and was watching for results, the stock recovered some losses and was later down about 2%.
The exact technical cause of this specific issue has not yet been fully detailed in public. But what is clear is that the outage affected systems that support the functioning of many large websites, not just Cloudflare’s own tools. When such a central service has trouble, the effect can be seen across many different industries at once.
Websites Affected by the Outage
During the outage, multiple high-profile sites were reported as struggling or briefly down. Among them were:
- LinkedIn, the professional networking platform.
- Coinbase, a major cryptocurrency exchange.
- Substack, a platform for independent writers and newsletters.
Users reported that pages were not loading, logins were failing, or content was slow to appear. For creators and businesses that rely on these platforms, even a short outage can cause lost traffic, missed sales, and frustrated audiences.
Outage tracking service Downdetector also showed a spike in problem reports. It recorded issues for sites like:
- Shopify, an e-commerce platform used by many online stores.
- HSBC, a major global bank.
- Deliveroo, a popular food delivery company.
Interestingly, Downdetector itself appeared to be briefly affected by the same wider problem. Reports started to surge around 9:16 a.m. London time, then dropped off again once Cloudflare’s fix took effect.
This Is Not the First Recent Cloudflare Incident
The December 5 outage came less than three weeks after a similar issue involving Cloudflare. That earlier incident also caused error messages on many websites and drew strong criticism online. At the time, Cloudflare itself called the problem “unacceptable,” noting how central its services are to the functioning of the modern web.
When such outages are close together, questions naturally rise about reliability, internal testing, and infrastructure design. Cloudflare will likely face fresh pressure from customers and investors to explain what went wrong and what long-term fixes it plans to put in place.
For everyday users, repeated outages reduce trust in the stability of online services. People expect critical websites to be available around the clock, especially for banking, e-commerce, or work tools. Each disruption can push businesses to review whether they should rely on a single provider or diversify.
Why Cloudflare Matters So Much
Cloudflare is not just another tech company. It provides core internet infrastructure that many businesses use every day. According to Cloudflare, its software handles and protects traffic for about 20% of all websites on the internet.
Some of Cloudflare’s key services include:
- Content delivery and performance, which help websites load faster for users around the world.
- Security tools, including protection from distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
- Traffic routing and DNS services, which help direct users to the right servers quickly and safely.
DDoS protection is especially important. In a DDoS attack, malicious actors bombard a website with so many requests that it becomes overloaded and stops working for real users. Cloudflare acts as a shield, filtering out harmful traffic and keeping the site available.
Because so many companies rely on Cloudflare for security and performance, any outage can have a very wide impact. It is similar to what happens if a major power grid, payment processor, or cloud platform suddenly goes down. The issue may start in one place, but it quickly affects many others.
What This Means for Businesses and Creators
For website owners, bloggers, and online creators, this event is a reminder to think about resilience and backups. While you cannot control what happens inside a company like Cloudflare, you can plan for how you respond when outages occur.
Here are a few steps that can help:
- Keep your audience informed. If your site or platform goes down, use email, social media, or other channels to update your audience. Clear communication builds trust, even during problems you did not cause.
- Consider multi-channel presence. Do not rely on only one platform to reach your readers or customers. For example, combine your own website with an email list and at least one social network.
- Review your hosting and backup strategy. Make sure your own site has regular backups, solid hosting, and basic security in place. While you cannot prevent every external outage, you can reduce your own risk.
- Monitor your uptime. Use uptime monitoring tools to track when your site is down and how long it takes to recover. This data can help you talk with your hosting provider or infrastructure partners.
The Bigger Picture: A Fragile Internet
Events like this highlight how much of the internet rests on a small group of infrastructure companies. Cloudflare is one of them, along with large cloud providers, domain registrars, and other key services. When even one link in this chain has trouble, millions of users can feel the effect.
For policymakers, developers, and businesses, the challenge is to build systems that are both powerful and resilient. That may include better failover plans, stronger internal testing, and more transparency when problems occur.
For now, most of the affected websites have returned to normal after Cloudflare pushed its fix. But this outage, coming so soon after a similar one, will likely keep the company under close watch. Users, investors, and customers will be looking for clear proof that future disruptions will be less frequent, shorter, and better handled.
As the internet keeps growing and more of daily life moves online, strong and reliable infrastructure becomes even more important. Incidents like this serve as a reminder that no system is perfect, and that planning for failure is just as vital as planning for growth.
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