Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, experienced a temporary outage on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on the morning of the 10th (local time) in almost every country around the world, including the United States. Musk attributed this to an external cyber attack, claiming that the source of the attack was identified as Ukraine, but no concrete evidence was presented.
The internet monitoring site Downdetector reported that on the morning of the same day, 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. In the United States, it was reported that up to 20,000 users were unable to access the X service between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m., followed by up to 40,000 users between 8 a.m. and noon. The types of service affected included mobile applications, which accounted for 57%, and websites, which accounted for 32%. In Japan, there were reports of up to 70,000 cases between 5 and 6 a.m., and up to 40,000 cases between 8 a.m. and noon.
Bloomberg News reported that the downtime of the X site lasted for several minutes in two separate instances and was subsequently restored. Musk wrote on his X account at 1:25 p.m. that there had been a "large-scale cyber attack on X (and it is still ongoing)" and stated, "We are attacked daily, but this time a lot of resources have been mobilized." He added, "A large organized group and/or a state is involved" and that they were "tracking" it.
In an interview with Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on the same day, Musk discussed the incident, saying, "I am not sure exactly what happened, but there was a large-scale cyber attack intending to take down the X system," and he noted that the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the attack originated from "the Ukraine region." However, Musk did not provide clear evidence for this.
Musk recently expressed a desire for the Ukrainian war to end quickly and emphasized the role of his aerospace company SpaceX's satellite internet service, Starlink, stating, "If I turn off Starlink, the entire front line in Ukraine will collapse," which drew criticism from Ukrainian supporters who questioned whether he was threatening to turn off the Starlink service.
In response, Musk clarified on the 9th that it was not a threat to Ukraine but a statement of fact, asserting, "No matter how much I disagree with Ukraine's policies, I will never turn off the Starlink terminals."
Meanwhile, on the same day, Musk's supporters raised the possibility on X that the opposition forces targeting Musk with recent protests outside Tesla stores and attacks on Tesla vehicles may have also attempted a cyber attack on X. One X user remarked, "First, there were protests against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), then Tesla stores were attacked. Now X is down. We cannot rule out the possibility that this is the result of an attack on X," and Musk shared this comment on his account.
Also on the morning of the same day, Musk shared a post claiming that the previous night, four Tesla Cybertruck vehicles burned in Seattle were the result of arson by a Democratic-affiliated group, calling it "crazy." Musk had previously claimed on the 8th on X that the protests against Tesla were orchestrated by Democratic activists and wealthy donors.
In the United States, protests against Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump administration, are spreading, with various attacks, including arson and shootings targeting Tesla stores and vehicles. DOGE is leading the organization restructuring and mass layoffs of civil servants to reduce federal government expenditures at the direction of President Trump.