Global LinkedIn Outage Explained Causes Timeline and Areas Affected

The LinkedIn outage today disrupted millions of users worldwide, sparking questions about what caused the interruption, how long it lasted, and which regions were most affected. This article breaks down the latest news on the outage, providing a clear timeline, exploring the possible causes, and detailing the areas impacted by the disruption.

LinkedIn homepage showing outage error message

Timeline of the LinkedIn Outage

The disruption began early on Friday, December 5, 2025 (UTC), coinciding with scheduled maintenance by Cloudflare, a major internet infrastructure provider. According to Cloudflare’s status page, maintenance was planned at two of its data centers, including one in Detroit (DTW), between 09:00 and 13:00 UTC.

Many users reported that LinkedIn and several other popular websites became unreachable during this window. The outage appeared to start just before or around the beginning of this maintenance period and lasted several hours, with services gradually returning to normal after 13:00 UTC.

Areas Affected by the Outage

This was not a localized issue. The LinkedIn outage impacted users globally, affecting regions across North America, Europe, and Asia. Reports came from multiple countries, showing the widespread nature of the disruption.

Besides LinkedIn, other major platforms relying on Cloudflare’s services also experienced downtime. These included Spotify, Etsy, Shopify, H&M, and prominent news outlets such as BBC, Politico, and Axios. Even outage tracking services like Downdetector faced partial unavailability, making it difficult for users to verify the status of affected sites.

What Caused the LinkedIn Outage?

Cloudflare confirmed the incident as an “internal service degradation” related to problems with its Panel and APIs. Importantly, the company clarified that this was not the result of a cyber-attack or hacking attempt.

Cloudflare provides critical services such as content delivery network (CDN), DNS, firewall, and traffic routing for about 20% of all websites globally. When its network experiences issues, the impact cascades across many platforms simultaneously, explaining why LinkedIn and other major sites went offline at the same time.

The scheduled maintenance at the Detroit data center likely triggered or coincided with the problem, causing a ripple effect that disrupted services worldwide.

Server room with network equipment during maintenance

How Was the Outage Resolved?

Cloudflare’s engineering teams worked quickly to identify and fix the internal service degradation. By the end of the maintenance window, most affected services, including LinkedIn, were restored to full functionality.

The company has since committed to reviewing its maintenance procedures to prevent similar incidents in the future. Users can expect improved communication and more robust safeguards during planned updates.

What This Means for LinkedIn Users and Social Media Platforms

The LinkedIn outage highlights the vulnerability of social media and other online platforms that depend heavily on third-party infrastructure providers like Cloudflare. When a single provider faces issues, it can cause widespread disruption across multiple services.

For users, this serves as a reminder to have alternative ways to access important information and networks during outages. For businesses and platforms, it underscores the importance of resilience planning and transparent communication during technical difficulties.

Summary

The LinkedIn outage today was caused by an internal service degradation at Cloudflare during scheduled maintenance at its Detroit data center. The disruption lasted several hours and affected users globally, impacting LinkedIn along with many other major websites. Cloudflare has resolved the issue and is taking steps to improve future maintenance processes.