Major Outages Disrupt Musk’s X Platform Across the US and UK
Elon Musk’s social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, faced widespread disruptions on Monday morning, affecting thousands of users in both the United States and the United Kingdom. The outages persisted for hours, sparking frustration among users and speculation about the cause.
Thousands Affected by the Outage
According to platform monitoring service Downdetector, tens of thousands of reports flooded in from US users experiencing technical difficulties. In the UK, more than 8,000 reports were registered shortly before 14:00 GMT, following a brief but noticeable spike earlier in the day. Some users continued experiencing connection issues well into the afternoon.
Many affected individuals attempting to refresh feeds or access the platform via its app and desktop version were met with an unresponsive loading icon, preventing them from engaging with content or posting updates.
Musk Blames Cyber-Attack
Elon Musk attributed the outages to a large-scale cyber-attack originating from the “Ukraine area.” The tech billionaire, who has openly criticized Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelensky, did not provide concrete evidence to support this claim. He suggested that the attack could have been orchestrated by “either a large, coordinated group and/or a country.”
“We’re not sure exactly what happened, but there was a massive cyber-attack to try and bring down the X system with [Internet Protocol] addresses originating in the Ukraine area,” Musk stated during an interview with Fox Business.
Cybersecurity Experts Weigh In
Alp Toker, director of Netblocks, an organization that monitors global web service connectivity, noted that the outages appeared consistent with previous cyber-attacks.
“What we’ve been seeing is consistent with what we’ve seen in past denial-of-service attacks, rather than a configuration or coding error in the platform,” Toker told the BBC.
Netblocks recorded multiple major outages spanning more than six hours on Monday, each having a global impact.
“This is among the longest X/Twitter outages we’ve tracked in terms of duration, and the pattern is consistent with a denial-of-service attack targeting X’s infrastructure at scale,” Toker added.
A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to overwhelm a website with excessive internet traffic, rendering it inaccessible to users. While Musk has previously claimed that X has been targeted by DDoS attacks, no official confirmations have been made regarding Monday’s disruption.
Political Tensions Amid the Outage
In addition to the platform’s technical troubles, Musk found himself embroiled in political controversy. On Monday, he called US Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, a “traitor” for visiting Ukraine over the weekend. Kelly defended his trip, stating that it reaffirmed his commitment to supporting Ukraine.
“Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do,” Kelly responded on X.
The BBC has reached out to the Ukrainian embassy in Washington, DC, for comment on Musk’s claims, but no response has been reported at this time.
Looking Ahead
The incident raises concerns about the resilience of social media platforms against cyber threats, especially given X’s role as a major communication hub. As investigations continue, cybersecurity experts and government officials will likely assess the severity of the attack and its implications for digital security worldwide.
For further updates on this developing story, stay tuned to Cyprus Business Group News.
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