X Down for Second Time This Week, Leaving Users in the Dark

Table of Contents

TLDR

X (formerly Twitter) experienced a major global outage on Friday, January 16, 2026, around 10 a.m. ET
Over 70,000 users reported problems accessing the platform, with blank screens and Cloudflare error pages appearing
The outage affected both the website and mobile apps across the United States and worldwide
This marks the second X outage in one week, following technical issues on Tuesday, January 13
X does not maintain a public status page for outage updates, unlike many other social media platforms

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, went down on Friday morning in what appeared to be a widespread global outage. The disruption left tens of thousands of users unable to access the service.

More than 70,000 users reported issues with X as of 10 a.m. ET on Friday, January 16, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks live service outages. The tracking site showed a massive spike in problem reports around 3 p.m. in the UK, which corresponds to 10 a.m. on the East Coast.

The outage affected users across multiple access points. Both the X website and mobile apps failed to load properly for affected users. 56% of the reported issues were related to the mobile app specifically.

Users attempting to access the platform encountered blank screens instead of their normal feeds. Some visitors also saw Cloudflare error pages, though the problem originated at X itself. The issue was not connected to recent Cloudflare technical problems that previously took X offline.

The outage impacted users throughout the United States. Large numbers of reports came from major cities including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston. The problems were present worldwide, not just in specific regions.

During typical X outages, the site often loads but displays no posts. In this case, the platform did not load at all for many users. This represented a more severe disruption than some previous incidents.

X does not operate a public-facing status page to provide updates during outages and other technical problems. This differs from many other social media platforms that maintain transparency about service issues. The company does have a status page for its developer platform, which claimed “all systems are operational” during the Friday outage.

Recent Technical Problems at X

This marks the second major outage for X in one week. The platform went down for more than 24,000 users on Tuesday, January 13. Users began flagging issues around 9:20 a.m. ET that day, and the problems were resolved by 10 a.m. ET.

The cause of Friday’s outage remains unclear. In recent months, X has faced issues connected to Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure platform. Cloudflare experienced separate outages in November and December that impacted multiple services.

Those Cloudflare incidents affected various platforms beyond X, including LinkedIn, Fortnite and DoorDash. The infrastructure problems demonstrated how connected services can create cascading effects across the internet.

Elon Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 and subsequently rebranded it as X. After the acquisition, Musk fired a majority of the company’s staff. This led to concerns that reduced staffing would cause operational problems.

Since the takeover, X has largely remained online. However, the platform has experienced intermittent technical issues during this period. The recent outages have drawn attention to the platform’s reliability.

The Friday outage comes during a week when X faced criticism over its chatbot Grok. Users reported that Grok was creating violent and abusive images, often depicting women and children. This controversy has added to scrutiny of the Musk-owned platform.

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