Elon Musk’s X was hit by waves of outages earlier Monday, which the billionaire claims was due to a cyberattack with IP addresses originating in Ukraine.
“We’re not sure exactly what happened,” Musk said during a Fox Business interview Monday afternoon. “But there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system, with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.”

Musk did not give any further details about the origin of the attack, including whether he believes it was connected to the Ukrainian government. It is possible to mask IP addresses and make it seem as though the traffic is coming from elsewhere, and spoofing locations is often offered by hackers-for-hire.
According to outage tracking site DownDetector, the problems began around 6 a.m. ET when up to 20,538 users reported problems. The issues temporarily died down before nearly 40,000 users reported outages at 10 am. Outages reported on DownDetector began to drop around 2 p.m. ET and trailed off throughout the afternoon.

Many users on DownDetector said the platform wouldn’t load, and the outage appeared to be global, according to DownDetector’s international sites. During the Fox Business interview, which aired during the 4 p.m. ET hour, Musk said platform was working again.
DownDetector data is self-reported, meaning it doesn’t fully represent the outage’s scale. CNN has reached out to X, though the company doesn’t usually respond to press inquiries.

Musk posted on X early Monday afternoon that he believed “a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved,” though the source of motivation behind the attack wasn’t confirmed. Musk also replied “Yes” to a post on X suggesting people are trying to silence the billionaire and his platform, although no further details about the service disruption, including whether it was caused by a targeted attack, have been revealed.
Eric Noonan, CEO of cybersecurity provider CyberSheath, told CNN that it’s likely too early to tell if an attack caused the issues.
“One of the things that should always be taken with a grain of salt is any statements made in the short period of time, immediately after, or even in this case during an attack,” Noonan said.

Musk has a history of attributing technical snafus to cyberattacks. When his conversation with Donald Trump on X started 42 minutes late in August 2024, he said there was a “probability” of an attack.
“Given the prominence of this conversation, there was of course a 100% probability of DDOS attacks,” Musk posted on the social media platform at the time. DDOS stands for “distributed denial-of-service,” which involves overwhelming servers with fake traffic to cause service disruptions. But Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ presidential campaign announcement on X in 2023 was also marred by technical difficulties.
Ransomware attacks have been more common than DDOS attacks in recent years because they’re usually financially motivated, according to Noonan. DDOS, however, is typically used to cause a disruption, which also makes confirming the source of these types of attacks more difficult.
Musk implemented widespread cuts and major changes to X after acquiring the popular social media platform, then called Twitter, in 2022. He immediately laid off top executives and, within days of acquiring X, cut 3,500 people, or around half the platform’s workforce. He laid off 80% of the staff in total and required the remaining employees to return-to-office full time.
The platform has experienced a series of glitches and disruptions since the acquisition.
It’s been a tough day for the businesses owned by Musk, who is also the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). On Monday, Tesla shares fell 15% on Monday, erasing its gains since Trump’s November 2024 election.
Tesla’s sell-off on Wall Street intensified on Monday, with shares of the electric vehicle maker plunging 15%, their worst day on the market since September 2020.
On Friday, Tesla wrapped up a seventh straight week of losses, its longest losing streak since debuting on the Nasdaq in 2010. The stock has fallen every week since CEO Elon Musk went to Washington, D.C., to take on a major role in the second Trump White House.

Since peaking at $479.86 on Dec. 17, Tesla shares have lost more than 50% of their value, wiping out upward of $800 billion in market cap. Monday marked the stock’s seventh worst day on record.
Tesla led a broader slump in U.S. equities, with the Nasdaq tumbling almost 4%, its steepest decline since 2022.
During an interview on Fox Business after hours on Monday, Musk was asked how he manages to run his businesses while fulfilling his role in the Trump White House. He said he’s doing so “with great difficulty.”
In addition to Tesla’s troubles, Musk’s social network X experienced several outages throughout the day on Monday, and his aerospace and defense company SpaceX is investigating two explosions in a row that occurred during test flights of its massive Starship rocket.
Musk also said during the interview that he expected to remain in the Trump administration for another year. After the broadcast, he posted on X that “It will be fine long-term,” referencing Tesla’s steep stock price decline.

The downdraft in Tesla’s stock on Monday was tied to uncertainty surrounding President Donald Trump’s plans on tariffs. Canada and Mexico are key markets for automotive suppliers, and increased tariffs, with the potential for a trade war, will likely affect production and lead to higher prices.
Tesla is also dealing with brand erosion due to Musk’s incendiary political rhetoric and his extensive work with the Trump administration, where he is leading up the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, has become the public face of the administration’s effort to dramatically shrink the federal government’s workforce, spending and capacity.
Meanwhile, Musk has used X to level accusations against judges whose decisions he did not like and promoted false Kremlin talking points about Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Activists and former Musk fans have protested at Tesla facilities across the U.S., and Tesla vehicles and facilities have been the apparent targets of vandalism and arson attempts. Repeated arson attempts and instances of vandalism occurred at a Tesla store and service center in Loveland, Colorado, most recently on March 7, police told CNBC.
Ben Kallo, an analyst at Baird, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday that recent reports of vandalism could hurt demand.
“When people’s cars are in jeopardy of being keyed or set on fire out there, even people who support Musk or are indifferent Musk might think twice about buying a Tesla,” Kallo said.
Analysts at Bank of America’s wrote in a report on Monday that Tesla’s new vehicle sales plummeted about 50% in Europe in January from a year earlier, partly owing to growing distaste for the brand. The firm also noted that some prospective customers are waiting for the new version of the Model Y.
Tesla’s Model Y, which is a small SUV, remained the best-selling battery electric vehicle globally in January. It was followed by China’s Geely Geome, which surpassed the Tesla Model 3 sedan for the month.
Global sales of electric vehicles, including fully electric and plug-in hybrid models, increased 21% in January from a year ago, even as Tesla’s sales declined. The growth was driven by demand in Europe, according to Bank of America.