As YouTube became unavailable for several users across the globe early Wednesday, Cloudflare Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Dane Knecht clarified that its services were “perfectly fine”.
“Downdetector showing simultaneous spikes for YouTube, Google, AWS, Cloudflare, Roku, Facebook, Gmail…I can personally confirm that Cloudflare is running perfectly fine,” he posted on X.
“If every service is ‘down' at the same time, maybe the problem isn't the services. There has to be a better solution than Downdetector,” he added.
Downdetector showing simultaneous spikes for YouTube, Google, AWS, Cloudflare, Roku, Facebook, Gmail…
— Dane Knecht ???? (@dok2001) February 18, 2026
I can personally confirm at @Cloudflare is running perfectly fine.
If every service is "down" at the same time, maybe the problem isn't the services. There has to be a better… pic.twitter.com/ywJGsrPi81
ALSO READ: Why Was YouTube Down? Google Clarifies
Responding to the tweet, one user said, “I wish people understood that downdetector works by just… tallying the number of people that check downdetector. So if everyone starts checking if Cloudflare is down, Downdetector will show it as down even though it might not be.”
I wish people understood that downdetector works by just… tallying the number of people that check downdetector. So if everyone starts checking is cloudflare down, downdetector will show it as down even though it might not be.
— Ted L (@Zaneris) February 18, 2026
Another said, “To be fair, Downdetector is not authoritative. The individual site's status page is where you get your info.”
To be fair, down detector is not authoritative. The individual sites status page is where you get your info.
— Noah (@itsnoahd) February 18, 2026
Down detector is where you see generally if people are also having an issue and follow it up with a status page visit.
It is not the first time Cloudflare has hit the headlines regarding outage-related issues.
On Monday, Feb. 16, The New York Times (NYT) reported that the company was facing an outage, before clarifying it was not.
“Cloudflare, the tech company that provides a wide range of services for apps and websites, said it was experiencing issues early Monday, as users reported problems with DownDetector, an online outage tracker, as well as with X and Amazon Web Services,” it posted on X.
Cloudflare, the tech company that provides a wide range of services for apps and websites, said it was experiencing issues early Monday, as users reported problems with DownDetector, an online outage tracker, as well as with X and Amazon Web Services. https://t.co/4LnfeUJSWR
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 16, 2026
NYT further posted an update. “Update: A spokeswoman for Cloudflare said there had been no outages on Monday, after the company posted on its website that it had identified an issue around 7 a.m. Eastern and that a fix was being implemented.”
Update: A spokeswoman for Cloudflare said there had been no outages on Monday, after the company posted on its website that it had identified an issue around 7 a.m. Eastern and that a fix was being implemented. https://t.co/ijAshbBThP
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 16, 2026
Clouflare CEO Matthew Prince rejected the report and slammed NYT.
“This is incorrect. Cloudflare had no outage. Check your facts before you publish incorrect information.”
This is incorrect. Cloudflare had no outage. Check your facts before you publish incorrect information.
— Matthew Prince ???? (@eastdakota) February 16, 2026
“The NYT continues to be embarrassingly bad with each update. It's like if a plane crashed because a pilot was drunk and the majority of the article talks about how Boeing issued a recall on some landing gear component and doesn't point out that the plane that crashed wasn't even a Boeing,” he said.
The NYT continues to be embarrassingly bad with each update. It's like if a plane crashed because a pilot was drunk and the majority of the article talks about how Boeing issued a recall on some landing gear component and doesn't point out that the plane that crashed wasn't even…
— Matthew Prince ???? (@eastdakota) February 16, 2026
Previously, in November 2025, CTO Knecht had publicly apologised for a widespread outage of Cloudflare, which had disrupted the business of several of its customers.
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