On Monday, March 10, 2025, Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) suffered a trio of outages, leaving users—including rabid NFL fans—high and dry. Downdetector logged nearly 40,000 glitch reports at 10 a.m. ET, tapering to 28,000 by 11:30 a.m. and 22,000 by 2 p.m. ET. Posts wouldn’t load, apps froze, and frustration boiled over as Musk’s $44 billion acquisition hit another technical snag. By afternoon, X flickered back for some, and Musk pointed the finger at a “massive cyberattack”—though without evidence, per CNBC, which couldn’t verify his claim.
“We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources,” Musk posted on X. “Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.” X didn’t respond to CNBC’s queries, leaving the cyberattack narrative hanging. Posts on X speculated wildly—some eyed Ukraine after Musk’s Fox Business hint at IP addresses from “the Ukraine area,” others dubbed it a DDoS blitz. Cybersecurity experts, per Reuters, scoffed: tracing IPs proves little, and small groups can pull off big attacks.
A Lean X Under Pressure
Since Musk’s 2022 takeover, X’s workforce has shriveled—down 80% from 7,500 to 1,300 by January 2023, with just 550 engineers left. Outages aren’t new: December 2022 saw feeds stall, and July 2023 crippled the desktop app. Monday’s timing stung extra hard—coinciding with the NFL’s free agency tampering window opening at noon ET. Fans, craving real-time signings, ditched X for Bluesky and TV. “X picks the worst day to crash—NFL news is chaos,” one X user lamented.
Cyberattack or Overload? The Debate Rages
Musk’s “massive cyberattack” claim—echoed in a Fox News chat where he tied it to Ukraine—drew skepticism. No data backs it, and X’s slim tech crew raises questions: glitch or assault? Downdetector’s peaks (40K at 10 a.m.) suggest scale, but Netblocks’ Alp Toker told BBC it fits past DDoS patterns—not a coding flub. A pro-Palestinian group, Dark Storm Team, claimed credit on Telegram (later deleted), per X posts, muddying the waters. “If it’s a cyberwar, X is a sitting duck,” an X analyst quipped.
What’s Next for X in 2025?
Monday’s mess—piled atop Tesla’s 15% stock plunge and Oracle’s Q3 miss—caps a rough stretch for Musk’s empire. X’s $380M ad revenue lifeline (2024 estimate) needs uptime, not outages. With Trump’s tariff threats (25% Canada/Mexico) rattling tech and Trust & Will’s $25M AI raise shining elsewhere, X’s reliability is under the microscope. Will Musk’s team—down to 550 engineers—plug the holes, or is this a taste of 2025’s chaos? Tuesday’s Nasdaq fallout and NFL fan gripes suggest X’s next move matters—cyberattack or not. Stay tuned for updates!
