X suffers major global outage, leaving millions unable to access service

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, experienced a widespread global outage on Friday, January 16, 2026, that left users around the world—including mobile and web users—unable to access content, post, or load feeds for over an hour. The disruption affected tens of thousands of accounts and underscored ongoing stability challenges for the platform.

Outage details

• Onset and impact: Reports of service problems surged sharply on outage tracking site Downdetector, with tens of thousands of reports from users in the U.S., UK, Europe, and other regions. Many users encountered blank screens or error messages when trying to view posts. 

• Scope of disruption: The incident marked the second major outage this week, following a separate disruption earlier in January that also drew widespread reports of connectivity issues. 

• Recovery: Service gradually returned for many users after roughly an hour, though no official explanation has been provided by X’s parent company or technical teams. 

X’s outage affected both the mobile app and website, preventing users from accessing timelines or posting updates, and raising concerns about the platform’s reliability for real-time communication across global communities. 

No official cause yet

At the time of reporting, X had not publicly acknowledged the cause of the outage or issued detailed updates on the disruption. Past outages on the platform have coincided with infrastructure issues involving content delivery networks such as Cloudflare, though there has been no confirmation that the same technical factors were responsible this time.

Context: growing scrutiny and technical instability

The service interruptions come amid increased scrutiny of X and its related technologies, including regulatory and legal pressures tied to its AI chatbot Grok. U.K. authorities have opened formal investigations into allegations that the chatbot facilitated the creation and sharing of non-consensual deepfake content, prompting broader concern about safety and compliance on the platform. 

These developments occur against a backdrop of previously reported outages and service irregularities since the platform’s renaming and operational changes under current ownership. They highlight the fragility of digital infrastructure even for globally integrated social networks relied on for news, civic engagement, and business communication.