The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced three separate outages, with the longest disruption lasting several hours. The most significant outage began at around 7 a.m. PT (10 a.m. ET), triggering over 40,000 user reports on Downdetector during the second outage and around 35,000 during the third.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, attributed the outages to a "massive cyberattack." In a brief tweet, Musk claimed that the attack targeted X’s systems, though no official statement was released by the company.

During an interview with Fox Business, Musk suggested the attack originated from IP addresses linked to the Ukraine region. "We’re not sure exactly what happened," Musk said. "But there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." He did not provide further details or evidence supporting this claim, though he appeared to imply potential involvement from the Ukrainian government.

The company seemed to have resolved the outage by 10 a.m. PT, as downdetector reports gradually declined afterward. By the time of Musk’s interview at 4 p.m. ET, most users had regained access to the platform, though nearly 2,000 outage reports remained active at that point.

In addition to Musk's cyberattack claim, unverified reports surfaced suggesting that a pro-Palestinian hacking group, Dark Storm, was responsible for a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on X. These claims reportedly stemmed from a Telegram post by Dark Storm, but no official confirmation was provided. Most reports about the group’s involvement came from less reputable sources, raising concerns about misinformation.

Despite the outages, Musk quickly resumed his usual activity on X, posting memes and engaging with tweets about his DOGE project. The platform's 'acting' CEO, Linda Yaccarino, remained relatively quiet, merely endorsing some of Musk’s posts without offering additional comments on the situation.

As the outages eased, alternatives like Bluesky and Threads gained attention as users explored other platforms. Bluesky, founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has become a popular choice since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022. Meanwhile, Mastodon and other decentralized platforms continue to attract users seeking alternatives to X.

As of now, X seems to be stabilizing, with Downdetector reports falling below 1,000. However, questions remain about the cause of the outages and the accuracy of Musk’s claims regarding the cyberattack.

PHOTO: PYMNTS

This article was created with AI assistance.