Platform X, which many still know as Twitter, went offline early Saturday morning, leaving thousands of users in the United States and abroad unable to access the site. The outage affected both the mobile app and desktop site, and caused frustration among users trying to connect, post, or view content.
The trouble began at 8:00 a.m. ET when users across the U.S. started reporting problems. By 8:26 a.m., the number of reports shot past 25,000, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks service problems in real time.
Users shared that they were unable to load timelines, send messages, or log in. Many saw error messages or blank screens. Others reported server connection failures that made the platform completely unusable for a while.
U.K. and Global Users Affected Too
The outage wasn’t limited to the United States. Over 11,000 users in the United Kingdom also reported having issues with the platform around the same time. Other countries saw smaller but similar disruptions, showing that the problem had a global reach, though it was not as severe outside the U.S. and U.K.
Downdetector, which collects data based on user complaints, showed that by 11:30 a.m. ET, the worst had passed. The number of issue reports dropped to just 690, suggesting that most users were able to log back in or use the platform normally again.
The Cause: Fire at Oregon Data Center
Later in the day, X’s technical team revealed the cause of the outage: a fire at a data center located in Hillsboro, Oregon. This facility supports X’s infrastructure and is a key part of keeping the platform running. The fire started on Thursday morning and forced operations at the center to stop.
The fire triggered a full-scale outage starting at 2:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, which led to a ripple effect that continued into Friday. By Saturday, the impact became much more noticeable, causing the large wave of user complaints.
X’s developer team posted that the login system was still struggling into Friday, even after the fire had been brought under control. The platform’s engineers continued to work through the night, trying to fix what they described as “degraded functionality.”
Musk Responds: Platform Needs Serious Fixes
Elon Musk, who bought X in 2022, did not stay silent. On Saturday morning, he replied to a post about the fire and the outage, confirming that the platform’s backup systems failed during the incident.
He stressed the urgent need to improve X’s internal systems, calling the failure a wake-up call. Musk said that the failover system, which should have stepped in when the data center went offline, did not work as it should have. This lack of redundancy exposed deep flaws in how X is set up to handle crises.
Musk added that he remains fully involved with X’s development, as well as his work at xAI, Tesla, and the upcoming Starship launch by SpaceX.
Engineers Working Around the Clock
While many users were back online by Saturday afternoon, X’s engineering team made it clear that the job wasn’t done. They said they were working non-stop to fix all issues and make sure the platform wouldn’t face a similar outage again.
“Our teams are still monitoring system performance and updating users,” one message from the technical staff read.
A Pattern of Trouble?
This isn’t the first time X has gone dark. In March 2025, the platform also suffered a major disruption. At the time, Elon Musk blamed a “massive cyberattack” for the problems. That outage lasted several hours and caused major headaches for both regular users and businesses who rely on X for communication.
Shortly after that event, Musk announced the sale of X to xAI, his artificial intelligence company. The move raised eyebrows in the tech world, especially since xAI was just starting to grow its own user tools and services.
As of early 2024, X had about 250 million daily active users. With such a large user base, even a small glitch can affect millions—and a full outage like Saturday’s can send shockwaves through the internet.
A Need for Better Infrastructure
Experts in the tech space say that X’s recent outages point to a bigger issue: the platform may not be ready for sudden failures. Without working backup systems or clear recovery plans, X risks losing trust among users.
“Any platform that serves hundreds of millions of people must plan for the worst,” said Sarah Kim, a cloud infrastructure consultant based in New York. “The Oregon data center fire shows that X is still far from reliable when things go wrong.”
Saturday’s blackout on X was a reminder of how fragile modern tech systems can be. A single fire, hundreds of miles away, left users in multiple countries unable to access one of the world’s biggest social platforms. While service was restored quickly, the incident showed that the platform still has work to do.
X has yet to release a full statement, but engineers say they are continuing to monitor the system. Users hope the fixes will stick.