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A sudden disruption at Cloudflare, a vital provider of internet infrastructure, caused widespread outages affecting major online platforms like X (formerly Twitter), ChatGPT, and Downdetector. Users reported difficulty accessing these services and encountering error messages. Cloudflare quickly acknowledged the issue, restoring dashboard functionality while working to fully resolve the broader impact. The outage was triggered by a surge in unusual traffic, prompting an investigation into the source of the spike. This incident underscores the fragility of the internet’s backbone, particularly following recent disruptions at Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, which together support a significant portion of AI services and online infrastructure.