ChatGPT, Perplexity and other platforms down: What does ‘please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed’ error message mean |
ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity and Downdetector are among hundreds of websites that are facing massive disruption as Cloudflare investigates technical glitch. Users worldwide experienced significant service interruption after a major technical failure hit the content delivery network provider, Cloudflare. Disruptions commenced around 6:00 AM ET (4.30 pm IST), following an issue with a provider for Cloudflare’s support portal, according to data from the outage-tracking platform Downdetector. The problem rapidly expanded, impacting a broad array of online services that utilise Cloudflare’s network for enhanced security and optimised performance. The company officially confirmed ongoing service degradation, noting reports of widespread 500 errors and API failures across various platforms.
The ‘Cryptic Error’ message explained
Several users, including members of The Times of India tech team checked multiple websites but were met with a baffling message: “Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed.” This error is generated by Cloudflare’s security challenge system, which is designed to verify users and block malicious traffic. The message essentially signaled that this verification mechanism itself was malfunctioning, preventing users from reaching functional websites.
According to a message on Cloudflare community, this message means that ‘something at users’ end is blocking the security tool (Cloudflare) that the platform is using to protect their site. This is probably something from the users’ local firewall, browser extension, or some other security tool on the users’ computer/network, and only they can know what that is and unblock it.’
Cloudflare’s response
Cloudflare officially addressed the situation, stating it was “aware of, and investigating an issue which impacts multiple customers,” noting the simultaneous failure of its Dashboard and API. According to the company’s latest message:A fix has been implemented and we believe the incident is now resolved. We are continuing to monitor for errors to ensure all services are back to normal.
