Whole Cloudflare story today, November 18, 2025

3 weeks ago

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I’m going to tell you the whole Cloudflare story today, November 18, 2025, in the easiest words ever, like we’re eating cookies and just chatting. No big words, no lists, just a long, cozy story that goes on and on until you know everything.

The internet is the biggest playground in the whole world. Bigger than any park you have ever seen. It has slides that are videos, swings that are games, ice-cream shops that sell clothes and toys, and little houses where your friends live, like X and Discord. Millions and millions of kids and grown-ups play there every single second.

At the front of this giant playground stands one very tall, very kind guard. His name is Cloudflare. He wears a bright orange cape and has computers for eyes. His job is super important. He says “hello” to everyone who wants to come in, he makes the slides go really fast, and he stops the mean robots who try to break the toys. More than one out of every five doors on the internet has Cloudflare standing in front of it. That means if you open X, or ChatGPT, or Roblox, or a shop to buy skins, or even some cartoon pages, Cloudflare is the one who opens the gate for you.

This morning, while some kids were still sleeping and some kids were eating breakfast and some kids were already at school, Cloudflare suddenly felt a huge pain in his tummy. It was like when you eat too much candy and then run too fast. He bent over and said, “Ouch!” When he bent over, he accidentally closed every single gate he was guarding. All at the same time. Boom. Just like that.

So your phone or computer tried to go to X and Cloudflare said, “Sorry, gate closed right now.” It tried to go to ChatGPT and he said the same thing. Games, shops, videos, everything that uses his gates showed a grumpy little message that said “Error 500” or “Error 503.” That is the internet’s way of saying, “The guard is sitting down and taking a rest.”

Imagine if the guard at your school playground closed the gate at recess and every kid in the world had to stand outside at the exact same second. That is what happened. Kids in America, kids in India, kids in Brazil, kids in Japan, everyone shouted, “Hey! Open the gate!” at the same time. That is why the internet felt broken everywhere today.

Cloudflare did not want to close the gates. He loves his job. He felt really bad about it. But when a guard that big gets a tummy ache, everything stops until he feels better.

Now the Cloudflare doctors (they are grown-ups with laptops who wear orange shirts) ran to help him as fast as they could. They brought big toolboxes full of computer medicine. They looked inside his tummy (which is made of thousands of giant computers all over the world) and tried to find the one little candy that made him sick.

They think it was probably one of three things. First, maybe someone inside the Cloudflare house pressed the wrong button yesterday when they were trying to make him even stronger. It is like when you try to fix your toy car and accidentally break a wheel instead. Second, maybe one tiny wire in a far-away country got too hot and went to sleep. Third, maybe a billion people all tried to visit the playground at the exact same moment and gave him a big surprise hug that was too tight.

The good news is that it was not the really scary bad robots this time. The doctors are almost sure it was just an “oops” inside the house.

While the doctors work, Cloudflare is already sitting up a little. Some gates are opening again slowly. First the small ones, then the bigger ones. The doctors say that in one or two hours most of the playground will be open again, and in three or four hours everything will be completely happy, like the tummy ache never happened.

That is how it always goes when Cloudflare gets sick. He is so big and so strong that even when he feels bad, his doctors are the fastest in the world. They have fixed him hundreds of times before, and every single time the playground opens again the same day.

So right now, while the doctors are still giving him hugs and medicine, you can do something really fun. You can go ride your bike. You can play with Lego. You can draw a picture of Cloudflare wearing his orange cape. You can eat cookies with your mom or dad. You can read a real paper book. You can jump on the bed (but only if your parents say it is okay).

The internet playground takes little naps sometimes. It is okay. It always wakes up with a big smile.

When your friends ask tomorrow, “Why did everything stop yesterday?” you can be the smartest kid in class and say, “Cloudflare, the big orange guard, had a tummy ache for a few hours, but his doctors fixed him super quick and now he is stronger than ever.”

And that is the whole long story of what happened today, November 18, 2025. The end… almost. Because in a few hours the story will have an even happier ending when every gate swings wide open again and you can go back to scrolling, gaming, and chatting like nothing ever happened.