X faces worldwide service breakdown, downdetector logs surge in complaints

Social media platform X was hit by a major global outage on Tuesday, January 13 disrupting digital communication and triggering widespread user frustration across several countries, according to outage-tracking website Downdetector. The disruption, which affected access to the platform, sparked concerns over the reliability of one of the world’s most influential online public discourse spaces.

In the United States, more than 22,900 users reported problems accessing X as of 9.19 am ET, indicating a significant breakdown in service. The impact was also strongly felt in the United Kingdom, where Downdetector logged over 7,000 complaints by 9.20 am ET. Canada reported more than 2,700 outage alerts during the same period, reflecting the global scale of the disruption.

Downdetector, which aggregates real-time outage data based on user-submitted reports, noted that the actual number of affected users could be substantially higher than the reported figures.

Despite the scale of the outage and its implications for digital communication worldwide, X did not immediately respond to queries from news agency Reuters seeking clarification on the cause or timeline for restoration.

The outage once again brings into focus the growing dependence on digital platforms for political communication, public engagement and information dissemination, even as questions persist over platform resilience and accountability.