Social media website X was down for many users on Monday, with its billionaire owner, Elon Musk, claiming the outage was the result of a “massive cyberattack” against the company.
X remained functional for some users, including Musk, who addressed the partial outage on the platform.
“There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X,” he wrote in a post, without offering evidence. “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. Tracing …”
X users first started reporting problems at around 5 a.m. Eastern time, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages across popular websites. Reports of the site being down peaked at 9:56 a.m. with nearly 40,000 users reporting issues, according to Downdetector. Connection issues persisted into the afternoon.
X did not immediately respond to a request from CBS MoneyWatch for comment on the outage.
In August 2024, Musk blamed a cyberattack for crashing X on the day he was scheduled to stream an interview with then-former President Donald Trump. He provided no evidence that the site outage was tied to a cyberattack, according to the Associated Press.
Musk, who is also the CEO of Tesla, has taken on a leading role at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a cost-cutting effort that is advising federal agencies on how to reduce waste.
Tesla is experiencing a backlash by some consumers who object to his government role and close ties to Mr. Trump. Some Tesla owners have sold their vehicles to distance themselves from the entrepreneur, while Tesla dealerships have been targeted and vandalized by anti-Tesla protestors.
Tesla shares tumbled $41.26, or 15.7%, to $221.42 in late afternoon trading. X, a private business, doesn’t trade on the stock market.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Megan CerulloMegan Cerullo is a New York-based reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering small business, workplace, health care, consumer spending and personal finance topics. She regularly appears on CBS News 24/7 to discuss her reporting.
