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I experienced the same thing during the midnight everyday. You are right, the users in steemit has increased recently and the situation would continuous in short term. Steem may need to consider some deployment of update or something.

No the website is working absolutely fine
How about you change your DNS server to Google's DNS server which is 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.8.4.
if you change it then you can see a boost in the Network Speed and won't face such problems in the future.
If you need help to change the DNS Server I'll be happy to tell you. As this is what my Blog does helping People in Technology

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