Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, suffered multiple outages on Monday, which the billionaire claims were caused by a cyberattack originating from Ukraine.
“We’re not sure exactly what happened,” Musk said during a Fox Business interview on Monday afternoon. “But there was a massive cyberattack attempting to bring down the X system, with IP addresses coming from the Ukraine area.”
Musk didn’t provide further details about the attack’s origin or whether he suspected the Ukrainian government’s involvement. Cyber experts note that IP addresses can be masked, making it appear as though traffic is coming from a specific location, even when it’s not. Hackers-for-hire often use such techniques to disguise the real source of attacks.
According to DownDetector, an outage tracking website, the problems began around 6 a.m. ET, with over 20,500 users reporting issues. The disruptions temporarily subsided but surged again at 10 a.m., affecting nearly 40,000 users. Reports of outages started to decline around 2 p.m. ET and continued to drop throughout the afternoon.
Many users on DownDetector said the platform wouldn’t load, and reports from international users suggested the outage was global. However, by the time of Musk’s interview on Fox Business at 4 p.m. ET, the platform appeared to be working again.
DownDetector relies on self-reported data, meaning its numbers don’t always reflect the full scale of an outage. The company also rarely responds to press inquiries.
Musk later posted on X that he believed “a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.” However, he did not provide evidence to support the claim. He also responded with “Yes” to a post suggesting people were trying to silence him and his platform, though no clear details were given about whether this was a targeted attack.
Eric Noonan, CEO of cybersecurity firm CyberSheath, told CNN that it’s too early to determine whether a cyberattack was the actual cause.
“One thing to keep in mind is that early statements, whether right after or even during an attack, should be taken with caution,” Noonan said.
Musk has a history of blaming cyberattacks for technical issues. When his conversation with Donald Trump on X was delayed by 42 minutes in August 2024, he suggested a high probability of an attack.
“Given the prominence of this conversation, there was of course a 100% probability of DDOS attacks,” Musk posted at the time. A DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attack floods servers with fake traffic to cause disruptions. Similarly, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his presidential campaign on X in 2023, the event was plagued by technical issues.
While ransomware attacks have become more common in recent years due to their financial incentives, Noonan noted that DDOS attacks are mainly used to create disruptions, making it harder to track down the perpetrators.
Since acquiring X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, Musk has made significant changes, including widespread layoffs. He fired top executives immediately after the acquisition and cut about 3,500 employees—half the workforce—within days. In total, about 80% of the staff was let go, and the remaining employees were required to return to the office full-time. The platform has experienced several technical issues and service disruptions since then.
Monday was a rough day for Musk’s businesses. Tesla’s stock dropped 15%, wiping out its gains since Trump’s election win in November 2024.
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