Social media platform X began experiencing widespread disruptions on Monday, with outages affecting thousands of users amid speculation that the platform may have been targeted by a cyberattack.

Reports of service disruptions began around 5:30 a.m. ET, briefly subsided, and then picked back up again later in the morning, peaking at over 40,000 outage reports. Many users saw error messages related to Cloudflare, a web security provider, suggesting server issues on X’s end. The disruptions drew widespread frustration, prompting users to voice their complaints online.

While some were able to access the platform for brief periods of time, issues lasted well into the afternoon, with over 26,000 reports still active by 1:46 p.m. ET, according to Downdetector.

By early afternoon, X owner Elon Musk took to the platform to offer an explanation, claiming that the outages were the result of a “massive cyberattack.” In a post to his 219 million followers, Musk asserted that X is regularly attacked but that this particular incident involved “a lot of resources,” possibly from a “large, coordinated group and/or a country.”

He did not provide specific details regarding the attack itself or any methods or tactics used by the alleged hackers.

Why It Matters: X’s widespread outage disrupted access for tens of thousands of users, marking one of the platform’s most significant service interruptions in recent months. With no immediate evidence provided, the cause of the outage remains unclear, leaving users and industry experts to speculate about the platform’s stability both in the short and long term.

• Extended Service Disruptions: The first wave of outages began around 5:30 a.m. ET and subsided before returning at 9:30 a.m. ET. By 1:46 p.m. ET, Downdetector still recorded over 26,000 active outage reports, making this one of X’s most significant disruptions in recent months.

• Musk Cites Cyberattack: Musk stated on X that the platform was hit by a “massive cyberattack,” potentially involving a coordinated group or even a nation-state. However, details about the nature of the attack or those responsible have not been independently verified.

• DoS Attacks Suspected: An anonymous industry source suggested that X had been targeted by multiple waves of denial-of-service attacks, which flood websites with excessive traffic to disrupt access. These attacks can cause significant service interruptions even if they are not highly sophisticated.

• Widespread Impact, Limited Response: At the peak of the outage, over 40,000 users reported issues, with many encountering Cloudflare error messages suggesting possible server problems. Despite the scale of the disruption, X, besides the post from Musk has not released a formal statement explaining the cause or outlining steps for full restoration.

Go Deeper -> Elon Musk says X is Down Due to Cyberattacks – Tech Crunch

Musk Blames X Outage on Cyberattack – Reuters

Elon Musk Says X Outage Caused by ‘Massive Cyberattack’ – Variety