TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Social media platform X went down on Monday, March 10, 2025. In response to this incident, Elon Musk blamed a large-scale cyberattack. Musk claimed that the attack was extraordinarily powerful and involved significant resources.
"We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved," Musk said in a post on X, quoted on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
The outage on X affected many users who had difficulty accessing the platform. Downdetector reported a surge in disruption reports starting around 5:45 AM in the U.S. before returning to normal for several hours. However, a second surge occurred in the afternoon, with major issues reported by mobile app users.
According to Downdetector, at its peak around 10 AM ET, 39,021 users in the U.S. cannot access X. By 5 PM, the number of disruption reports decreased to about 1,500. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, Tempo experienced disruptions from 9 PM on Monday. Currently, the social media platform can be accessed normally.
Musk then reiterated his claim in an interview with Fox Business Network. As quoted from Reuters, he said there was a massive cyberattack trying to bring down the X system with the IP address originating from Ukraine.
However, a source from the internet infrastructure industry denied the claim. The source, speaking anonymously, stated that most of the hazardous traffic bombarding X originated from IP addresses in the United States, Vietnam, Brazil, and several other countries. The source mentioned that the hazardous traffic directly from Ukraine was not significant.
Several cyber security experts also doubted Musk's claim. They pointed out that denial of service (DoS) attacks like this have been repeatedly carried out by small groups or individuals without the need for state support or large organizations.
X service disruptions add to the list of recent challenges facing Elon Musk. As reported by The Guardian, last Friday, one of SpaceX's rockets exploded mid-flight, scattering debris near the Bahamas. Then, over the past week, a series of national protests titled ''Tesla takedown'' took place, while Tesla owners began selling their vehicles. Tesla's stock price also hit its lowest level in months on Monday.
Musk, who also serves as an adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, has criticized Ukraine's efforts to defend itself from Russia's invasion. He stated that Ukraine's front line would collapse without his Starlink satellite communication service, although he emphasized that he would not cut off Ukraine's access to the service.
His criticism aligns with the shift in Washington's stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Not long ago, President Donald Trump and his deputy, JD Vance, cornered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a press conference when they received Zelensky at the White House. Trump threatened to cut off U.S. aid for Ukraine.
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