Topline
More than 56,000 people briefly reported issues accessing Elon Musk’s social media platform X just before 3 p.m. EDT on Friday, the second-straight day users indicated problems with the platform, according to outage tracking site DownDetector.
Musk attributed an earlier outage on the social media platform to a “massive cyberattack,” as … More
Getty ImagesKey Facts
Reports of outages on X started around 2:34 p.m. EDT on DownDetector, a website that tracks outages across platforms based on user reports, with the number of reports rising to around 56,361 people as of 2:49 p.m
About 58% of reports on DownDetector indicated issues accessing X’s app, while 35% were about the website not working and just 7% of reporters had issues with server connection.
DownDetector showed a decline in outage reports just before 3 p.m., with about 3,255 people reporting issues as of 3:04 p.m.
More than 10,000 users briefly reported outages on X on Thursday, though neither Musk nor X commented on the issues, as more than 35,000 people also reported issues accessing Reddit.
X did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
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Key Background
The latest reported outages on X follow reports of issues accessing the platform earlier this month, which Musk attributed to a “massive cyberattack” that was “done with a lot of resources.” Musk suggested the outage was carried out by a “large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved,” later telling Fox News that X “still [wasn’t]
sure exactly what happened” but had tracked it to “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.” Cliff Steinhauer, director of information security and engagement at the National Cybersecurity Alliance, told Forbes it was “too early to say definitely” whether X faced a cybersecurity attack without more evidence. Musk has previously claimed at least one X technical issue was caused by a cyberattack, including when Musk interviewed President Donald Trump on the platform in August 2024. Musk said at the time there appeared to be a “massive DDOS attack on X,” referring to a distributed denial-of-service-attack that disrupts websites. Some cybersecurity experts expressed skepticism about the claim.
Further Reading
Reddit Outage: Thousands Of Users Report Issues With App, Website (Forbes)
X Outage: Elon Musk Says ‘Massive Cyberattack’ Originated From IP Addresses Around Ukraine (Forbes)
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