X Faces Extended Outage Due to Data Center Fire Impacting Users

For more than 24 hours, users of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, have been grappling with significant service disruptions. Issues reported include messages failing to load, timelines not updating, and posts that only appear after multiple page refreshes. These problems began on Thursday afternoon, triggering thousands of user reports on Downdetector, a platform that tracks web outages.

X's official Engineering account acknowledged the degraded service, attributing it to a data center outage. The team is actively working to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, Wired reported a fire at an X-leased data center near Portland, Oregon, which may be linked to the ongoing problems, though this connection remains unconfirmed.

This outage is not an isolated incident. X has faced multiple service disruptions in recent years, including a major outage in March 2025 that caused worldwide disconnections and difficulties accessing feeds and messages. Elon Musk, who acquired X in 2022, previously attributed such outages to cyberattacks without providing evidence.

Since Musk's acquisition for $44 billion, X has undergone drastic workforce reductions, cutting about 80% of its staff and leaving just 550 full-time engineers by early 2023. Further layoffs in late 2024 targeted the engineering department, raising concerns about the platform's capacity to maintain and secure its infrastructure.

The company has also experienced security misconfigurations that may have exposed it to denial of service attacks, compounding the challenges of maintaining a stable and secure platform.

Implications for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Reliability

The extended outage at X highlights the critical importance of robust cloud infrastructure and disaster recovery planning. Data center fires, while rare, can have cascading effects on service availability, especially when combined with reduced engineering capacity and potential security vulnerabilities.

For businesses relying on cloud platforms, this serves as a cautionary tale: infrastructure resilience isn't just about technology but also about maintaining sufficient skilled personnel and rigorous security protocols. When these elements falter, user experience and trust can quickly erode.

As X works to restore full functionality, the incident underscores the need for continuous investment in infrastructure health and security, especially for platforms serving millions globally.