On Tuesday morning, a major glitch at Cloudflare caused a brief disruption that rattled parts of the global internet. The outage started mid-morning UK time and took down several popular platforms, including X, Truth Social, and some AI services. After about six hours, Cloudflare’s engineers fixed the issue and restored normal service.
Cloudflare explained the problem was triggered by a faulty configuration file that overwhelmed their internal systems, causing multiple services to crash. They were clear that no hacking or malicious actions played a role in the outage.
But the timing of the disruption caught people’s attention, especially as the US House of Representatives prepared to debate the Epstein Files Transparency Act. This bill, led by Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, aims to release government records linked to Jeffrey Epstein. It has drawn rare support from both political parties and stirred public interest due to the ongoing controversy around Epstein’s death and connections.
Social media was quick to speculate. Some users with large followings on X claimed the outage was intentionally timed to interfere with the vote on the Epstein files. Despite these claims, Cloudflare firmly denied any link, stating there’s no proof the crash was an attack or deliberate.
For insurance companies and cyber-risk experts, this incident highlights how fragile digital infrastructure can be. Since Cloudflare handles huge amounts of web traffic, even a simple technical hiccup can cause significant disruptions for businesses relying on the internet. Insurers are reminded that their risk extends beyond immediate threats like cyberattacks and includes the resilience of key tech providers.
Cloudflare has apologized for the outage and said they will carefully review what went wrong. They also warned that some services might still feel the impact as internet traffic settles back to normal.
The House eventually went ahead with its scheduled work on the Epstein-related bill. No matter the legislative result, this episode shows how quickly technical issues can spark political debate and online conspiracy theories, especially in a time when trust in institutions is low. It also serves as a reminder of the close links between technology, politics, and public perception in today’s world.