Elon Musk’s X Faces Widespread Outages Amid Alleged ‘Massive Cyberattack’

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, experienced multiple waves of outages on Monday

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, experienced multiple waves of outages on Monday, which the billionaire attributed to a large-scale cyberattack allegedly originating from Ukraine.

“We’re not sure exactly what happened,” Musk stated in a Fox Business interview on Monday afternoon. “But there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”

Musk did not provide additional details regarding the source of the attack or whether he suspected involvement from the Ukrainian government. It is well known that cybercriminals can mask their real IP addresses, making it appear as though the traffic is coming from different locations—a technique frequently used by professional hackers-for-hire.

Data from outage-tracking site DownDetector indicated that issues began around 6 a.m. ET, with approximately 20,538 users reporting problems. The situation briefly improved before nearly 40,000 users experienced outages at 10 a.m. Reports of disruptions began to decline around 2 p.m. ET and continued to taper off throughout the afternoon.

Users on DownDetector reported difficulties loading the platform, with the issue appearing to be widespread on a global scale, according to data from DownDetector’s international sites. During his Fox Business interview, which aired during the 4 p.m. ET hour, Musk stated that the platform was operational again.

It is important to note that DownDetector relies on self-reported data, meaning the total extent of the outage remains unclear. X, the company formerly known as Twitter, typically does not respond to press inquiries regarding technical issues.

Musk took to X on Monday afternoon, speculating that “a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved,” although no concrete evidence or confirmed motive behind the alleged attack was disclosed. He also responded with “Yes” to an X post suggesting that there were efforts to silence both him and his platform, though no further information about the disruption was made available.

Eric Noonan, CEO of cybersecurity firm CyberSheath, noted that it is often premature to determine the cause of such outages.

“One of the things that should always be taken with a grain of salt is any statements made in the short period of time, immediately after, or even in this case during an attack,” Noonan explained.

Musk has previously blamed cyberattacks for technical disruptions. In August 2024, when his scheduled conversation with Donald Trump on X was delayed by 42 minutes, Musk suggested that an attack was a likely cause.

“Given the prominence of this conversation, there was of course a 100% probability of DDOS attacks,” Musk posted at the time. DDOS, or distributed denial-of-service, is a type of cyberattack that floods servers with excessive traffic, leading to system failures. Similarly, in 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign announcement on X suffered from technical difficulties.

According to Noonan, ransomware attacks have surpassed DDOS attacks in frequency in recent years due to their financial incentives. DDOS attacks, on the other hand, are generally intended to disrupt services, making it more difficult to trace their origins.

Following his acquisition of Twitter in 2022 and its subsequent rebranding to X, Musk implemented significant staffing reductions and operational changes. He immediately dismissed top executives and, within days, cut 3,500 jobs—approximately half of the company’s workforce. Eventually, 80% of the staff was let go, with remaining employees required to return to in-office work full time.

Since then, the platform has faced repeated technical issues and service disruptions.

Monday was particularly challenging for Musk’s business empire. In addition to X’s outages, Tesla’s stock plummeted by 15%, erasing its gains since Trump’s election victory in November 2024. Musk, who also leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), now faces growing scrutiny over the stability of his companies.