Users around the world faced issues accessing X (formerly Twitter). The website Downdetector, which tracks outages, confirmed that the platform was down for many people.
Elon Musk, the owner of X, claimed that a "massive cyberattack" was behind the disruption.
Even though X is banned in Pakistan, some users still reported problems. Downdetector recorded 74 outage reports from Pakistan at 3:08 PM, which increased to 136 by 11:06 PM but later dropped to 45. Most complaints came from Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Karachi.
The outage wasn't just in Pakistan—tens of thousands of users in the US, UK, and other countries also faced issues. In the US, reports peaked at 40,000 before dropping to 26,579, while over 10,800 users in the UK reported problems.
Elon Musk Claims Cyberattack on X
Elon Musk took to X to allege that the platform was experiencing an unprecedented cyberattack.
"There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against 𝕏. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved," he posted on X, adding that an investigation was underway.
A source within the internet infrastructure industry revealed that several waves of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks hit X starting at 9:45 UTC. These attacks overwhelm targeted platforms with fake traffic, leading to major disruptions.
Technical Experts Weigh In
At 7:17 PM, internet observatory NetBlocks confirmed that X (formerly Twitter) was down worldwide. They clarified that this was not caused by government bans or internet restrictions.
In Pakistan, where X has been banned for over a year, officials say the restriction is unlikely to be lifted anytime soon.
Since Elon Musk took over X in 2022, the platform has faced many technical issues, especially after major staff layoffs. So far, X has not given an official response or a timeline for fixing the outage.
