X (Twitter) goes down for second time in a day, services disrupted globally

On March 10, 2025, Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) experienced two significant global service disruptions that affected millions of users across multiple continents. The first outage began at approximately 3:00 PM Indian Standard Time (4:30 AM Eastern Standard Time in the United States), representing the most substantial technical failure since Musk acquired the platform for $44 billion in 2022. This initial disruption lasted between 30-90 minutes according to various reports, with users encountering standardized error messages and complete inability to access their accounts or content. The second outage, occurring just hours later at approximately 7:25 PM IST (8:55 AM EST), further compounded the platform’s technical difficulties and raised serious questions about the stability of X’s underlying infrastructure.

What Happened

The first outage began at approximately 3 PM Indian Standard Time. Users worldwide suddenly lost access to both the X website and mobile app. According to the monitoring service DownDetector, thousands of reports came in within minutes. Service began returning after about 30-40 minutes, though not simultaneously for all users.

Just four hours later, a second outage occurred at around 7:25 PM IST. This second disruption happened during peak usage hours for European and North American users. This outage lasted approximately 30 minutes, with varied recovery times across regions.

Global Reach

The outages affected users across multiple continents:

• United States: 18,000 outage reports
• United Kingdom: 10,000 outage reports
• Significant numbers from India and other countries worldwide

In Switzerland alone, over 900 problem reports were logged, primarily from urban centres such as Zurich, Basel, and Bern.

Users attempting to access X saw a standard error message: “Something went wrong, try reloading.” This prevented all platform interaction – users could neither post new content nor view existing posts.

Impact Varied by Region

How users experienced the outage varied by location:

United States:

• 57% had mobile app problems
• 34% encountered website issues
• 9% faced server connection errors

United Kingdom:

• 61% reported app issues
• 34% had website problems
• 5% experienced server errors

India:

• 80% faced website access problems
• 11% encountered login issues
• 9% had mobile app failures

No Official Response

Throughout both outages, X and its leadership team remained silent. The company did not issue any explanation about the causes or expected resolution times. This lack of communication left users speculating about potential causes.

During the disruptions, many users moved to alternative platforms. Services like Threads (Meta) and Bluesky saw increased activity as users sought information about the outage. Hashtags like #TwitterDown and #XDown became popular as people shared updates across other platforms.

Significance

These dual outages stand out because X has maintained relatively good technical stability under Musk’s ownership. Two major failures in a single day suggest potential underlying technical issues.

As social media has become essential for global communication and news sharing, platform reliability has grown increasingly important. The disruptions raised questions about X’s infrastructure stability, particularly given its role as a hub for real-time information and crisis communication.

Business Context

The timing of these outages coincided with challenges elsewhere in Musk’s business portfolio. On the same day, Tesla’s stock price fell by 8%, continuing a downward trend that saw a 31% decline over the previous month.

For X, maintaining technical reliability is crucial for retaining both users and advertisers, especially after the significant changes implemented since Musk’s acquisition.

Technical Possibilities

Without official information, experts can only speculate about causes. The comprehensive nature of the outages points to core infrastructure issues rather than isolated problems.

The occurrence of two separate outages on the same day is particularly unusual. Typically, after one major disruption, companies implement immediate protective measures. The second outage suggests either:

• The initial problem wasn’t fully resolved
• The fix created new issues
• The two incidents had different but coincidental causes

Conclusion

The March 10 outages represent significant technical failures for X, affecting millions of users globally. The absence of official communication about the causes or solutions represents a notable gap in crisis management.

As X continues to evolve under Musk’s leadership, maintaining technical stability remains essential for user trust and business success. Whether these disruptions were isolated incidents or signs of deeper technical issues remains to be seen.

Frequently Asked Questions: X Platform Global Outages on March 10, 2025

General Questions