X has been ’hit by a massive cyber attack,’ says Musk

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk said X was the target of a major cyberattack on Monday, raising questions about whether the politically polarizing billionaire is being targeted, or if his decision to slash staffing at what was once Twitter is coming back to haunt the social network.

Reports of issues on X began early on Monday, as users in Asia, Europe and North America reported that they were unable to access the platform, the Downdetector tracking site said.

“There was (still is) exp massive cyberattack against X,” Musk said in a post on the platform, which was functioning intermittently as the day wore on.

Musk also blamed a cyberattack — without evidence — for crashing the site last year when it was about to host an interview with Donald Trump.

Musk’s post on Monday included a post on X from an account called DogeDesigner that some on Reddit speculated could be a puppet of the tycoon himself — in other words Musk, hiding his own identity.

Protests against the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that Trump entrusted to Musk were noted, as was vandalism of Tesla shops (a cyberattack would signal another round of hatred toward Musk, the post said). He is the head of Tesla, the electric vehicle maker.

“It takes a lot (of money) to do an attack of this scale,” a post in the exchange by the account of Jammies read.

“Who has money to pay for this?”

Musk also overemphasized the scale of such an attack, claiming it would take huge resources, and speculating that a country or a large coordinated group was behind it all.

It’s not possible to tell what is going on without seeing inside X operations, cybersecurity experts say, but the length of the trouble marks a sign of an attack.

“It’s cyberwar full force hitting,” Chad Cragle of cyber defense platform Deepwatch said.

“With Musk in the national spotlight and geopolitical tensions peaking, these attacks have all the hallmarks of nation-state aggression.”

Ax wielding –

Last week, Trump responded to criticism of unprecedented cuts to the US government controlled by his billionaire advisor Musk by saying they needed to be specific.

“We say the ‘scalpel’ not the ‘hatchet,’ ” Trump wrote on the social media platform Truth Social.

The president’s message is the first major step toward curtailing the power Musk has been given, as DOGE pushes forward in the effort to cut federal staffing and spending.

DOGE’s cost-cutting campaign is up against growing resistance on several fronts, including court rulings and some pressure from lawmakers.

Trump said he had summoned his cabinet to send the clear message to his Cabinet members, not Musk, that they were in charge of their departments.

The outages on the X social media platform left tens of thousands of users unable to access the site, monitors said.

At its height, the site said, there were more than 40,000 people reporting outages.

“Twitter keeps breaking?” asking a post from @Lalaslovely in the Downdetector chat section.

After Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022, most staff members either left or were fired, leading to fears about whether the staffing was in place to maintain the safety and stability of the platform.

Since buying Twitter with the professed aim of furthering free speech, Musk has drawn criticism for decimating content moderation teams.

He has also faced technical problems on the platform under his ownership, as well as reinstating accounts of right-wing conspiracy theorists and Trump.

Misinformation has flourished on X under Musk, who has been criticized for spreading it to his vast online audience, advocacy groups say.