The social media platform X, formerly Twitter, was experiencing intermittent outages on Monday, mostly on its app, according to Downdetector, which tracks reports of problems from users on websites.
The first outages on X, which Elon Musk bought for $44 billion in 2022, were reported before 6 a.m. Eastern time, after which the site and app seemed to resume functioning. But at about 10 a.m. more problems arose, and there were 41,000 reports of outages on X, according to Downdetector. Shortly after 11 a.m., a third spike of reported outages emerged, and the site remained down for many users.
The cause of the disruption was not immediately clear. Mr. Musk said in a post on the platform that X had been the target of a “massive cyberattack,” possibly conducted by “a large, coordinated group” or a country. He did not provide details.
More than half of the outage reports were from users of the app, Downdetector’s data showed.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, referred a request on Monday for comment on the matter to X.
Representatives for X did not immediately respond to questions about what had happened or whether the social media platform had returned to full operability.
In a post on the encrypted messaging app Telegram, a group known as Dark Storm took credit on Monday for causing the outage.
While it not was clear whether the outages were connected to the public backlash that Mr. Musk has been experiencing because of his cost-cutting role in the Trump administration, the disruption occurred at a particularly tumultuous time for the world’s richest man.
It compounded a rocky few weeks of double-digit stock losses for Tesla, protests outside the electric vehicle dealerships, vandalism and a group of Mr. Musk’s critics ditching their E.V.s. to protest his values and politics. Some of those same people have abandoned X for other social media platforms, including Bluesky.
Neil Vigdor and Kate Conger contributed reporting.
