Outage Hits X (Formerly Twitter): Users Worldwide Report Widespread Disruptions
A major outage struck the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on May 22, 2025, leaving millions of users across the globe unable to access core features of the site. The disruption, which began Thursday afternoon, was marked by escalating user complaints about login failures, broken links, and the inability to post or receive messages.
Widespread Impact and User Frustration
By 8:26 a.m. ET on Saturday, more than 25,000 users in the United States alone had reported issues with both the X mobile app and website, according to Downdetector.com, a service that tracks internet outages. The problem was not limited to the U.S.; over 11,000 users in the United Kingdom and hundreds more from countries such as Canada, Peru, and Germany also reported similar difficulties.
The disruption affected both desktop and mobile users, with 55% of complaints related to the website, 36% to the app, and 9% involving server connection issues. Many users expressed their frustration online, criticizing X’s leadership and the platform’s reliability, especially as the outage stretched into a third day for some.
Suspected Causes: Cyberattack and Data Center Fire
While the company has not yet issued an official statement on the root cause, multiple reports suggest a combination of factors. X’s official engineering account acknowledged a data center outage and said teams were “actively working to remediate the issue”. Wired reported that a fire broke out at a data center leased by X near Portland, Oregon, though it remains unclear if this incident was directly responsible for the widespread service disruptions.
Complicating matters, the outage followed recent claims by X owner Elon Musk of a “massive cyberattack” targeting the platform, with Musk suggesting the attack involved substantial resources and possibly a coordinated group or nation-state. However, cybersecurity experts have noted that denial-of-service attacks—where sites are overwhelmed with traffic—can often be executed by smaller groups or individuals.
Company Response and Ongoing Issues
As of Saturday, X had not responded to multiple media requests for comment, and users continued to experience degraded service, including slow loading times and disappearing messages. The company’s engineering team posted updates acknowledging the problems but offered no timeline for full restoration of services.
This outage is the latest in a series of technical challenges for X since Elon Musk’s acquisition in 2022, which included significant staff reductions and reported security misconfigurations that may have left the platform more vulnerable to attacks.
Service Restoration
By late Saturday, some reports indicated that services were gradually returning to normal, with users regaining the ability to post and interact on the platform. However, many remained concerned about the platform’s stability and the lack of transparent communication from X’s leadership regarding the cause and resolution of the incident.
The situation remains fluid, and further updates are expected as investigations continue into both the cyberattack claims and the data center fire.