Widespread Downtime Reported By X Users

A widespread outage is affecting users of X, the platform that was formerly known as Twitter, rendering the website and app unavailable.

Around 1:30 p.m. Nigerian time on Saturday, May 24, problems started to arise on the social network owned by Elon Musk. An unexpected outage on the social networking site X, formerly known as Twitter, prevented hundreds of users from sending messages or seeing their feeds.

At the height of the glitch, more than 2,200 people reported problems, according to outage tracking website DownDetector. For a brief period, the platform was unavailable on desktop and mobile devices, which caused annoyance online. However, the platform is presently operating normally after services were restored.

Also DownDetector.co.uk reports that within minutes, the number of customer complaints increased from 66 to over 11,000, reaching a peak at 1:39 p.m.

In just a few days, this is the second significant disruption. On Thursday night, May 22, millions experienced yet another outage that interfered with important functionality, including direct messages, login pages, and access to different sections of the site on desktop and mobile devices.

Now that the platform is back up and running, users can interact with others and express their ideas via the site’s feeds.

Platform X users have had a number of problems, such as delays in receiving direct messages and trouble logging in. Widespread inconvenience resulted from the outage, which impacted access on desktop and mobile devices. Despite the fact that services have already resumed, the business has not yet released a formal statement outlining the reason. Many users also stated that during the downtime, they came across broken links. 

As instructed by the authorities, X recently affirmed that it would block more than 8,000 accounts in India. The platform, however, voiced its disapproval of the decree, claiming it violates the fundamental right to free speech.

“The Indian government has issued executive orders to X mandating that X block more than 8,000 accounts in India. Failure to do so could result in severe fines and the imprisonment of the company’s local staff. The social networking site stated, “The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to prominent X users and international news organizations.”

“The Indian government has typically not identified which posts from an account have broken local laws in India. We were unable to find any proof or rationale to block a sizable portion of the accounts. 

Meanwhile Musk responded to a post on the Saturday downtime on X by writing, “Major operational improvements need to be made, as evidenced by the uptime issues this week.”

“The redundancy for failover should have worked, but it didn’t.”

He wrote, “Back to sleeping in conference/server/factory rooms and working around the clock.”

According to the wealthy founder of SpaceX and Tesla, he “must be super focused” on the businesses since “critical technologies are rolling out.”

When CNBC reached out to X for comment, he did not immediately reply. There was no further information provided regarding the cause of the outage.

Since Musk purchased X, previously Twitter, in 2022, the website has had several widespread disruptions.

In March, there was another downtime on the website, which Musk at the time blamed on a “massive cyberattack.”

At the time, Musk also posted that, “This was done with a lot of resources, but we get attacked every day.”