Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, suddenly encountered a major technical issue on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. The outage caused thousands of users in several countries, including the United States, Britain, India, and Canada, to struggle to access the platform. Millions were unable to view their feeds (timelines), log in, or send posts or messages.
More than 28 thousand complaints registered
According to the outage tracking website Downdetector, more than 28,000 users reported that X was down. Most of these users reported issues with their timelines not loading, login issues, posting issues, and non-functioning direct messages (DMs). The problems began earlier in the day and escalated rapidly within a few hours.
Trouble arose after Elon Musk’s big announcement
This outage comes just weeks after X owner Elon Musk made a major announcement. Musk stated that he was making the code for X’s news feed algorithm and advertising system open-source so that people could understand why posts are shown and how ads are displayed. Musk also stated that this code would be regularly updated to maintain transparency. This significant technical issue suddenly appeared on the platform shortly thereafter.
Why is X down? There’s no official reason yet.
At the time of writing, X has not issued an official statement regarding the cause of the outage. According to technical experts, such outages are typically caused by server glitches, software update issues, or internet infrastructure failures, but the exact cause in this case has not yet been confirmed.