Social media platform X experiences worldwide service disruptions

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced global outages for a little over an hour on Thursday. According to Downdetector.com, over 47,000 US users encountered access issues with X and X Pro. Some users in the UK and Asia also reported being unable to view posts on the site, instead seeing a message that welcomed them to X. The platform, which is now owned by Elon Musk after he purchased Twitter for $44bn (£35bn) last year, has not yet provided a comment on the outages. The hashtag #TwitterDown quickly began trending as news of the outages spread. However, the disruption was short-lived, and users were able to access the platform again after just over an hour. Since Musk’s acquisition of the platform, it has faced challenges such as a decline in advertising revenue and accusations of hosting antisemitic posts alongside advertisements. The company recently filed a lawsuit against Media Matters for America, a left-leaning pressure group that made these accusations. Additionally, X has been accused by the European Union of spreading disinformation and breaching its rules regarding illegal content and disinformation.