A significant cyberattack disrupted X (formerly Twitter) on March 10, 2025, affecting thousands of users globally with intermittent service outages throughout the day. Platform owner Elon Musk confirmed the attack, suggesting it required substantial resources that might involve "a large, coordinated group and/or a country."
The outage began around 3:00 p.m. IST, with user reports spiking at three distinct intervals throughout the day.
According to Downdetector data, the platform experienced peak disruption periods with over 41,000 user complaints after 8:30 p.m. IST. Users reported primarily app-related issues (57%), followed by website blackouts (31%) and server connection problems (11%).
Evidence suggests the disruption was caused by a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, a method that overwhelms servers with excessive traffic.
In an unexpected development, a hacking group called Dark Storm Team has claimed responsibility. This pro-Palestinian collective, formed in 2023, has previously targeted government websites of NATO countries, Israel, and nations supporting Israel since the October 2023 conflict escalation.
The outage's global impact was evident from reports across the U.S., India, the UK, Australia, and Canada. During the disruption, many users encountered Cloudflare error messages indicating server issues.
This incident follows significant outages, including one in August 2024 and another during Ron DeSantis' presidential announcement on X Spaces in March 2024. Cybersecurity concerns have intensified following Musk's controversial leadership, including substantial staff reductions since his 2022 platform acquisition.
As of the latest reports, efforts to trace the attack's origins continue, highlighting ongoing vulnerabilities in the platform's infrastructure despite its critical role in global communications.