Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, suffered waves of outages on Monday, disrupting service for thousands of users worldwide. Musk attributed the disruptions to a large-scale cyberattack originating from IP addresses in Ukraine, though there has been no verified proof or formal confirmation to substantiate this assertion.
The outages began early in the morning, with reports surfacing around 6 a.m. ET. By that time, over 20,000 users had reported issues on DownDetector, a platform that tracks online service disruptions. The problems temporarily subsided before escalating again at 10 a.m. ET, with nearly 40,000 outage reports. The number of reports started declining by 2 p.m. ET, and by late afternoon, the platform appeared to be functioning again. Users from multiple countries reported being unable to load the platform, indicating a global impact.
Despite Musk’s claim that the outage was the result of a coordinated cyberattack, no official confirmation has been provided regarding the nature of the disruption. Cybersecurity experts caution against drawing early conclusions, emphasizing that technical failures and distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attacks can have overlapping symptoms. DDOS attacks flood a system with excessive traffic, causing disruptions, but attributing their source can be challenging due to the ability to mask IP addresses. Ransomware attacks, which are more financially motivated, have become more common in recent years, but DDOS remains a frequent method for causing large-scale disruptions.
This is not the first time Musk has suggested a cyberattack was responsible for technical issues. In August 2024, he claimed that a scheduled conversation with Donald Trump on X was delayed due to a probable cyberattack. Similarly, during the 2023 presidential campaign, a live event involving Florida Governor Ron DeSantis faced technical difficulties on X.
Since Musk’s acquisition of X—formerly known as Twitter—in 2022, the platform has undergone significant changes. He implemented widespread layoffs, cutting approximately 80% of the workforce, including top executives. Operational shifts, such as requiring remaining employees to return to the office full-time, have led to internal restructuring. The platform has since faced multiple glitches and disruptions, raising concerns about its long-term stability under the reduced staff.
The outage on X coincided with broader challenges for Musk’s businesses. Tesla shares dropped by 15% on Monday, erasing the gains the company had accumulated since Trump’s election in November 2024. While Musk has remained active in various ventures, including serving as the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), his companies have faced increased scrutiny due to ongoing technical issues and business volatility.
Despite the latest disruption, X was back online by late Monday afternoon, though questions remain about the cause of the outage and whether further incidents could occur.