X / Twitter down for a third time — live updates on the massive outage

Just when it looked better...

We finally started to see the reports level out and even drop for X / Twitter. No sooner than I was getting ready to report that we might be out of the woods, the reports spiked suddenly, getting up to 34,000 again.

That's higher than the 28,000 reported at the peak of the third outage, so things are only getting worse as the reported DDOS attack continues to bring the social network to its knees.

You have to wonder about the motivation for the attack. Is it just because X / Twitter is a popular service, or is the attack politically motivated? We can't say, but there's a reason X is the only service being targeted today.

All over the place

The biggest spikes in outage reports are in major U.S. cities still, with New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Phoenix and others leading the charge.

However, as you can see from the map above, there are plenty of outage reports all over the U.S., from rural areas to smaller cities. Just based on the volume of outage reports, it's safe to say that users all around the country (and the world) can't access the social network.

How else to spend your time

With X being down, many of your internet scrolling habits are probably all out of sorts. If you spend much time seeking information on X, you might not know what to do with yourself.

Thankfully, there are tons of Twitter / X alternatives where you can get your social media fix.

But if you don't feel like doomscrolling through another social network, we have other ideas. Why not subscribe to Tom's Guide on TikTok and watch some of our best short-form videos? Or, if you prefer longer content, maybe look at Tom's Guide on YouTube, which is filled with reviews and other content you'll love.

If that doesn't work, maybe you should read our in-depth Bluesky guide to help you learn more about the fast-growing social network.

Tesla stock also crashing

A service like X going down isn't good for anyone. People rely on X to get the latest news and information about, well, everything.

But that's far from Elon Musk's only problem today. Tesla's stock price has crashed even further by 11%, and UBS warns that it's still a sell even at this stage.

The stock is down more than 40% year to date.

Why the steep drop? A UBS analyst is predicting Tesla’s 2025 vehicle deliveries to decline by 5%, which would be the second consecutive year of negative growth for the company.

A minor downturn

While it took a lot longer, we've finally seen a slight but notable downturn in the reports. This outage peaked at 29,143, and as of this post, it's sitting at 26,428. That's about 3,000 reports less than its peak, which could mean we're getting to the end of this outage.

Will this be the final X / Twitter outage for the day, or will it keep happening? We'll be here every step of the way with the latest X outage news as it happens.

Lasting a little longer

The first two outages showed quick triangles on Downdetector. The third one is staying at its peak for significantly longer.

Suppose the outage is due to DDOS attacks. In that case, the attackers may have found a better angle to get in, or X engineers are trying to find a more permanent solution for whatever hole the attackers are actively using.

Whatever the reason, this outage isn't going away quickly and leaves millions of users without access to their favorite social network.

We've contacted X

I've sent an email to X support asking for a comment on the outage since we can't access any official channels on the social app to see if there's an explanation. As soon as we hear back from the social media giant, we'll post an update (assuming we hear anything back at all).

How to complain about X being down?

Where do you go to complain that X / Twitter is down if X is down? Usually, when there's a major outage, we turn to X to find out what users think about the problem.

Without X, we can look to apps like Bluesky to see what users think, but it's hard to hear anything firsthand from X itself, as Musk doesn't typically venture to other social networks.

If you're interested in getting started on Bluesky, it might be wise to check out our how to sign up for Bluesky guide, as it offers everything you need to get going on the X alternative.

How long will this X outage last?

While I can't predict the future, I can look at the previous two X outages today and guess how long this one might take to resolve. The two outages this morning each took about 45 minutes to resolve, so if it is a DDOS attack this time, we'd expect a similar time frame, but anything could happen.

Once the DDOS attacks stopped and X came back, it took about three hours for X to go down again the first time and only about 30 minutes for it to go down between the second and third outage.

Downdetector comments the new X

When X goes down, Downdetector is one of the first places dedicated users turn to find out what's happening.

Since they're already there, along with thousands of other X users, people have started sharing thoughts about random things in the comments section, almost using it like X / Twitter.

I can't guarantee that what you'll find is safe for work, but if you really miss hearing random people yelling their thoughts into the echo chamber that is social media, maybe check the Downdetector comments section.

It's not just you, X is down again

After having no problem getting to X for about an hour, I'm unable to load the popular social network at all. Our Streaming Managing Editor, Kelly Woo, also said she can't access X / Twitter.

I've tried going to Twitter.com and X.com on my MacBook Air to get to the service with no success. I also opened the X app on my iPhone in an attempt to load some content and couldn't see anything.

If you're experiencing issues with X, know it's not just you. We'll keep you posted on the latest, but today will be a day of X going up and down as the issues continue to pop up.

X down again?

After what appeared to be the end of the outage, another spike occurred, leading us to believe that DDOS attacks (if that ultimately is the cause) aren't done.

Members of Tom's Guide staff are also saying they can't access X / Twitter, so it's likely that we're about to enter another significant outage.

X is back online

While the spike was massive, it was short live. After two short outages, the social media site has emerged from the outage and appears to be in good working order again.

Seeing as there were two outages, we'll continue to monitor X's status throughout the day to see if it goes down again.

Where in the U.S. was X down?

Many of the X outage reports have come from New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. That's not surprising, as these large cities have more people and will often have the most reports for major outages like this one.

If the outage is a DDOS attack, it would also make sense for the attackers to target major cities, as that'll take the most significant number of users offline in the least amount of time. If the goal is to upset Musk and his company while making X users mad, these three cities make sense.

While not as large, there's a spike of reports in Boston that's worth keeping an eye on if X goes down again.

What's causing these spikes?

Some users are speculating that X might be the victim of DDOS attacks, which is causing the social network to go up and down. The engineers at X are taking steps to resolve and secure the service while attackers are finding new ways to get around the defenses and bring the popular social network down again.

Now that it's working again, you can see an X post above about the possibility of a DDOS attack and even claiming that Dark Storm Team is responsible for the attacks.

We'll see if the second attack is the end or if X goes down again.

Two spikes, one day

It's been an unpleasant day for X, as we've seen two significant outages reported on the same day, neither lasting very long. This isn't ideal for Elon Musk's X social network or its users.

The first outage wasn't nearly as bad as the second, with reports peaking at just over 21,000. The second outage lasted for about the same time but saw more than 40,000 reports.

The difference in reports is likely because the U.S. wasn't online yet, as it started at around 5:30 a.m. ET. The second outage occurred in the eastern part of the United States' morning, leading to more users getting upset and reporting the problem.

Is X / Twitter back online?

The Downdetector reports are starting to drop (though the number is still at around 30,000, which is a lot). A few members of the Tom's Guide staff claim they've been able to get X posted to load without issue, so it's possible the issue could be coming to an end.

As always, we'll continue to monitor for any spikes, as the service went down early this morning, came back and then went down again a couple hours later. If that happens again, we'll be here to keep you in the loop.

Where are you posting?

Are you still posting your thoughts on one of the best X (Twitter) alternatives, or are you keeping everything bottled up until X comes back?

As this X outage develops, we'll keep you in the loop, letting you know what's happening as soon as we learn.

Is X Down? Yes it is.

It looks like X is having some significant issues. The baseline number of reports for X on Downdetector is 12, so for it to jump to more than 40,000 indicates something isn't quite right with the popular social media app.

We haven't heard anything official from X about why the application and website are down. We'll continue to monitor the problem and keep you posted as we learn more.