Elon Musk’s microblogging platform, X (formerly Twitter), experienced a major outage on Thursday, May 22, disrupting services for thousands of users. The outage began around 6 PM IST, with users reporting issues accessing the platform, signing in, and sending direct messages on both desktop and mobile devices.
According to DownDetector, over 2,100 complaints were logged at the peak of the disruption. Many users also encountered broken links across the platform. As of now, the company has not issued an official statement explaining the cause of the outage.
The outage comes amid a turbulent time for X in India. The company recently announced it would comply with a government order to block over 8,000 accounts in the country. However, X has pushed back against the directive, citing concerns over freedom of speech.
In a statement, X said the Indian government’s orders target accounts linked to international news organisations and well-known personalities on the platform, often without specific evidence of legal violations.
“Failure to comply could result in substantial fines or imprisonment of X’s local staff,” the company noted.