X Platform Faces Major Global Outage Again
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, suffered a major global outage on Friday, January 16. This massive disruption marks the second time in just three days that the Elon Musk-owned platform has been knocked offline. Thousands of users across the globe found themselves unable to access posts, photos, and videos.
Widespread User Complaints and Technical Issues
According to performance monitoring service Downdetector.com, a significant portion of the user base reported problems with both the app and website. Many users blamed server issues for the disruption. The problems began surfacing around 8:30 PM, with complaints peaking at approximately 8:45 PM.
Incident reports on Downdetector exceeded 74,000 during the outage. Roughly 6,200 of these reports originated from India. Members of The Times of India tech team experienced difficulties firsthand. They were unable to load new posts and frequently encountered a 'black page' on both the website and mobile devices. Some users received error messages stating, "Something went wrong. Try reloading."
Breakdown of User Problems
When it comes to user complaints, Downdetector provided a detailed breakdown:
- 56% of global users reported problems accessing the app.
- 39% of affected users struggled with accessing the website.
- Approximately 10% said they experienced server connection failures and issues related to their feed or timeline.
No Official Statement from X
X has not issued any public statement regarding the cause of these problems. The platform remains silent about what triggered the widespread outage. This lack of communication has left users speculating about the technical faults behind the disruption.
History of Recent Outages
The January 16 outage represents the latest in a series of technical faults for the platform. Similar widespread disruptions occurred on January 13, just three days prior. The platform also faced significant outages in November of last year, in October due to issues with Cloudflare, and in both July and August. Each of these incidents prevented thousands of users from accessing the service.
This is a developing story, and further updates are expected as more information becomes available.
