Thousands of users reported problems accessing X on Wednesday, according to Downdetector, amid growing speculation the social media platform could face a ban in the UK.
By 2:25 p.m. (GMT), roughly 7,000 users had logged issues, primarily struggling to load the homepage. Mobile app users reported similar problems, though some could still access the platform.
The outage comes just weeks after two major cloud service disruptions affected platforms including Snapchat, Roblox, Minecraft, Xbox, and Asda Online, highlighting the fragility of global internet services.
The timing coincides with heightened scrutiny of X in the UK. Ofcom has launched a formal investigation into whether X has broken UK law, following repeated complaints over the platform’s Grok AI chatbot, which allowed the creation of unlawful AI-generated images.
In response to complaints, X limited photo editing features to paying subscribers, but UK officials, including Tech Secretary Liz Kendall, have deemed this insufficient. She called the misuse of images “despicable and abhorrent” and urged regulators to use their “full legal powers.”
Elon Musk has pushed back against the criticism, labeling officials “fascist” and claiming they seek to “suppress free speech.”
This marks the latest disruption for the platform, which has faced multiple outages over the past months, including incidents tied to Amazon AWS and Cloudflare. The cause of the current outage remains unclear.
As regulatory pressure mounts and users report access issues, X faces growing uncertainty over its operations in the UK and potential wider implications for its global user base.
