Elon Musk’s social media platform X experienced widespread outages on Monday, which the billionaire attributed to a massive cyberattack with IP addresses originating from Ukraine.
“We’re not sure exactly what happened,” Musk said in an interview with Fox Business on Monday afternoon. “But there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”
Musk did not provide further details on the attack’s origin or whether he suspected involvement from the Ukrainian government. Experts note that IP addresses can be masked, making it possible for attackers to spoof their location.
Outages Disrupt Millions of Users
According to outage-tracking site DownDetector, issues began at 6 a.m. ET, with over 20,500 user reports of disruptions. The problem temporarily subsided before spiking again at 10 a.m., when nearly 40,000 users reported outages. Reports of disruptions began to decline by 2 p.m. ET and continued to ease throughout the afternoon.
Users on DownDetector worldwide reported that the platform was failing to load, confirming that the outage was global. By the time Musk appeared on Fox Business during the 4 p.m. ET hour, he stated that X was operational again.
DownDetector relies on self-reported data, meaning the true scale of the outage remains unclear. CNN has reached out to X for comment, though the company typically does not respond to press inquiries.
Speculation Over the Attack
Musk took to X on Monday afternoon, suggesting that “a large, coordinated group and/or a country” was behind the attack, though he did not confirm its motivation. He also replied “Yes” to a post implying that adversaries were attempting to silence him and his platform.
Cybersecurity experts, however, caution against drawing early conclusions. Eric Noonan, CEO of cybersecurity firm CyberSheath, told CNN that it is too soon to determine whether a cyberattack was responsible for the outage.
“One of the things that should always be taken with a grain of salt is any statements made in the short period of time, immediately after, or even in this case, during an attack,” Noonan said.
Musk’s History of Cyberattack Claims
Musk has previously attributed technical issues on X to cyberattacks. In August 2024, when his conversation with Donald Trump on X was delayed by 42 minutes, Musk suggested there was a “100% probability” of a DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack, which floods servers with fake traffic to cause disruptions.
Similarly, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ 2023 presidential campaign launch on X faced technical difficulties, though no attack was confirmed at the time.
While ransomware attacks have been more prevalent in recent years due to financial incentives, DDoS attacks are typically used to cause disruption, making their true source harder to trace, according to Noonan.
X Faces Growing Challenges Under Musk
Since acquiring Twitter (now X) in 2022, Musk has drastically reduced the workforce, laying off 80% of employees, including top executives and critical engineers. The platform has since experienced frequent technical glitches and service disruptions.
Meanwhile, Musk’s other ventures also faced setbacks on Monday. Tesla shares plunged 15%, wiping out its post-election gains since Donald Trump’s November 2024 victory.
