Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, reported that the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), owned by him, experienced temporary outages in most countries around the world, including the United States, on the 10th (local time). Musk claimed that a large and organized group or country was attacking X.
The internet monitoring site 'DownDetector' reported that users from most countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, India, Australia, Argentina, and Japan, reported being unable to access the X service on that morning. In the United States, up to 20,000 people reported being unable to use the X service between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., and a maximum of 40,000 reported the same between 8 a.m. and noon. In Japan, there were a maximum of 70,000 reports during the 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. window and 40,000 reports between 8 a.m. and noon.
Musk stated in a post on X that afternoon that "a large-scale cyber attack on X is underway," noting that "while the platform is attacked daily, this time a significant amount of resources has been mobilized." He added, "A large, organized group or country is involved" and that they are "tracking" the situation. Musk also continued to make the same claims during an appearance on Fox Business News. He said, "A large-scale cyber attack aimed at taking down the X system has occurred" and stated that "the IP addresses of the attacks originated from the Ukrainian region."
Experts believe it is too early to determine the exact cause of the outages. Eric Nunan, CEO of the cybersecurity firm CyberSys, told CNN, "It is too early to conclude whether it was a cyber attack," adding that "care should be taken with hasty announcements immediately after an outage." Furthermore, CNN reported that "one can hide an IP address to make it appear as if data is coming from elsewhere," raising doubts about whether actual attacks took place in Ukraine.
Musk left a comment on a post from another user who raised the possibility that the X outages might be due to an external attack. The post he shared included the message, "Initially, there were protests against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), followed by attacks on Tesla stores, and now the X outages have occurred. We cannot rule out the possibility that this is an attack on X."
Recently in the United States, protests against Musk's political activities related to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) of the Donald Trump administration have been spreading, with various attacks including arson and shootings targeting Tesla vehicles, stores, and charging stations occurring one after another. Musk claimed in a post on X on the 8th that Democratic activists and major donors were behind the protests against Tesla.