In a widespread disruption, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced a global outage early Thursday, leaving users unable to view posts. The outage, at its peak, triggered an influx of reports from users encountering issues accessing the platform.
Users attempting to access X were greeted with a message stating, “Welcome to X!” as reports of troubles began to surge just before 0500 GMT, according to monitoring site Downdetector. The issues extended to X Pro, previously TweetDeck, with users facing loading problems and a message indicating “Waiting for posts.”
Downdetector data revealed that over 77,000 users in the United States encountered access issues with both X and X Pro during the outage. Frustrated by the inability to post on X, users turned to rival platforms such as Facebook, Threads, Reddit, and Meta’s competing app, Threads, to share updates about the disruption.
In Pakistan, nearly 1,000 reports of outages were documented around 10:30 am, with access to X being restored for users in the country a little after 12 pm. Despite the widespread impact, there has been no immediate comment from X, and the cause of the outage remains undisclosed.
X is currently grappling with various challenges, including an EU investigation under legislation targeting disinformation and hate. The platform has also faced criticism for its response to recent rioting in Dublin and has witnessed a departure of significant advertisers. Internal documents revealed that the company’s current valuation is less than half of the $44 billion Elon Musk paid for it in October 2022.
The $44 billion acquisition led to significant layoffs, including engineers responsible for addressing service outages. This recent outage adds to a series of disruptions on X, with a major incident reported by Downdetector in February, affecting thousands of users and prompting complaints about posting limitations and messaging issues.
As the platform works to restore normalcy, users and industry observers are keenly watching for any official statement from X regarding the cause of the outage and steps taken to prevent future disruptions.
