On Monday, 10th March 2025, X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, experienced significant outages affecting thousands of users across the United States and the United Kingdom. These disruptions began in the early hours, with users reporting difficulties accessing the platform on both mobile and desktop versions.
Scope and Impact of the Outages
The technical issues commenced around 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET), with outage reports peaking at approximately 10:00 a.m., reaching over 40,000 user reports in the United States alone. In the United Kingdom, more than 8,000 users reported issues shortly before 2:00 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Users attempting to access X during these periods were met with loading errors, preventing them from viewing or posting content.
Elon Musk’s Response and Attribution
Elon Musk, the owner of X, addressed the situation by attributing the outages to a “massive cyberattack.” He suggested that the attack originated from IP addresses in the “Ukraine area,” implying the involvement of a large, coordinated group or a nation-state. Musk stated, “We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.”
Expert Analysis and Speculations
Cybersecurity experts have noted that the nature of the outages aligns with patterns observed in previous distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, an organization monitoring internet connectivity, commented that the disruptions are consistent with DDoS attacks targeting X’s infrastructure at scale. citeturn0news27
However, some experts have expressed skepticism regarding the attribution to Ukraine. They suggest that the timing and potential motives could indicate alternative scenarios, including the possibility of framing Ukraine to benefit other state actors.
Technical Details of the Outage
Users attempting to access X during the outage encountered various error messages, including notifications stating, “Something went wrong, try reloading.” The disruptions affected both the desktop and mobile versions of the platform, with the mobile app experiencing a higher number of failures. The outage also extended to X’s API and data pipelines, impacting third-party applications and analytics services.
Historical Context and Previous Incidents
This incident is among the most significant outages X has experienced since Musk’s acquisition in October 2022. The platform has faced occasional technical difficulties, including a major outage in August 2024, where a substantial number of users reported issues with the app, website, and server connections.
Reactions and Alternative Platforms
During the outage, many users turned to other social media platforms such as Threads and BlueSky to discuss the disruption. These platforms experienced a surge in activity as users sought alternative means to communicate and share information during X’s downtime.
Conclusion
The recent outages on X highlight the platform’s vulnerability to large-scale cyberattacks and raise questions about the security measures in place to protect against such incidents. While Musk’s attribution of the attack to sources in the “Ukraine area” adds a geopolitical dimension to the event, further investigation and evidence are necessary to substantiate these claims. As cyber threats continue to evolve, social media platforms must bolster their defenses to ensure uninterrupted service for their global user base.
References
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