On the evening of February 20, 2026, thousands of internet users across the United States and the United Kingdom found themselves staring at error messages instead of their favorite websites. The culprit? A major global outage at Cloudflare, a company that underpins around 20 percent of all websites worldwide, according to multiple reports from Express, Hindustan Times, and Evening Standard.
The disruption began shortly after 6:30 pm GMT (1:30 pm EDT), when Downdetector—a popular platform for tracking online service issues—began registering a flood of complaints. The outage didn’t just hit obscure corners of the web; it swept through big names like Bet365, Uber Eats, Wikipedia, Workday, Steam, and many more. As the reports poured in, internet users quickly realized the scope of the problem: this wasn’t just a blip, it was a widespread digital blackout.
By 6:57 pm GMT, Downdetector had logged a staggering 5,247 reports of issues with Bet365 alone in the UK. At nearly the same time, 217 reports of Cloudflare issues were recorded. Over in the United States, the pain was felt just as sharply. By 1:40 pm EDT, nearly 4,000 users had reported problems with Uber Eats, making it one of the hardest-hit services during the outage. Workday and Bet365 each saw more than 500 complaints from frustrated users, according to Hindustan Times.
So what exactly happened? Cloudflare, which operates as both a content delivery network and a distributed domain name server (DNS), serves as a kind of digital traffic cop. Its services are designed to protect websites from sudden surges in traffic, spam attacks, and the ever-dreaded distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. But when Cloudflare itself stumbles, the ripple effect is immediate and massive. As Express pointed out, when Cloudflare is down, a major portion of the internet’s infrastructure goes with it, resulting in error messages—often the dreaded 500 or 5xx codes—across hundreds of websites.
Cloudflare was quick to acknowledge the problem. In a statement released during the outage, the company said, "We are investigating issues with our services and/or network. Users may experience errors or timeouts reaching Cloudflare’s network or services." The tone was measured, but the reality was anything but calm for those trying to access their favorite platforms.
For many, the outage hit at the worst possible moment. Social media lit up with complaints, especially from Uber Eats users who found themselves unable to order food—or worse, unable to track orders already en route. One exasperated user wrote on X, "Imagine being hungry and Uber Eats app goes down." Another lamented, "So my Uber Eats app just stopped working as my order is on its way." A third added, "What’s the point of having Uber One when Uber Eats is so unreliable? The last time we tried to order you wouldn’t let us because you said there were no drivers and now the whole app is down. We’re wasting our money!!"
The frustration wasn’t limited to food delivery. Bet365, a major online betting platform, was inundated with complaints. As hundreds—eventually thousands—of users reported issues, Bet365 responded on X: "We’re aware of an issue with our Website/App, and our Technical Team are working to resolve it as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience." The message was echoed by their tech support, who reassured users that the problem was being addressed as quickly as possible.
Other popular platforms also found themselves in the digital dark. The outage affected Steam, Wikipedia, Sky Bet, PlentyOfFish, Minecraft, Dead By Daylight, Counter-Strike, ARC Raiders, Amazon Web Services, Dota 2, Overwatch 2, Call of Duty, Paddy Power, Betfair, Uber, Sky Vegas, Microsoft 365, and Just Eat. For many, the sudden inability to access these platforms was a stark reminder of just how much daily life now depends on internet infrastructure that most users rarely think about—until it fails.
While the disruption was dramatic, the technical details behind it were less clear. According to Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at ESET, the outage highlighted a fundamental vulnerability in the way the internet is structured. "If a major provider like Cloudflare goes down for any reason, thousands of websites instantly become unreachable," Moore explained, as reported by Express. "The problems often lie with the fact we are using an old network to direct internet users around the world to websites but it simply highlights there is one huge single point of failure in this legacy design."
This wasn’t Cloudflare’s first stumble, either. The company had previously suffered outages in November and December of 2025, according to Express and Evening Standard. Each incident serves as a wake-up call about the fragility of the digital world. As more of daily life, business, and entertainment migrates online, the consequences of such outages only grow more severe.
Fortunately for users, the disruption didn’t last all night. By 2:15 pm EDT (7:15 pm GMT), services like Uber Eats, Workday, and Bet365 appeared to be functioning normally again, according to an update from Hindustan Times. Still, the episode left many wondering: how can so much of the internet depend on just a handful of companies and networks? And what happens next time there’s a hiccup?
Cloudflare, for its part, continues to describe itself as a company that makes websites and apps "faster and more secure." It protects and speeds up internet giants such as X, LinkedIn, and Zoom, as well as smaller websites and blogs. Its reach is vast—about one in five websites globally use Cloudflare’s services in some form, according to Evening Standard.
The February 20 outage is likely to spark fresh conversations about the resilience of the internet’s backbone. For now, though, most users are just relieved to have their food deliveries, online bets, and favorite websites back up and running. But the underlying question remains: can the web’s infrastructure keep up with the demands of an always-online world, or is it time for a serious rethink?
As digital life resumes its relentless pace, the events of that Friday evening serve as a reminder—sometimes, all it takes is a single point of failure to bring much of the internet to a standstill.