Is X (Twitter) Down? Global Outage Hits Millions as Elon Musk’s Platform Crashes 16February 2026
If your timeline is stuck or showing the dreaded “Something went wrong” message, you aren’t alone. X (formerly Twitter) is currently suffering a massive global outage today, Monday, February 16, 2026. The disruption has left millions of users unable to refresh feeds, post updates, or access direct messages.
Outage Report: Is X Down Right Now?
The problems began around 8:00 AM ET (1:00 PM GMT), with a sudden and violent spike in reports on Downdetector. In the United States alone, reports surged past 42,000 within minutes, while global reports suggest the impact is hitting hundreds of millions of daily active users across the UK, India, Brazil, and Europe.
Key Issues Reported by Users:
- Blank Timelines: The “For You” and “Following” tabs are failing to load, displaying “Posts aren’t loading right now.”
- Grok AI Failure: Users of the premium Grok AI chatbot report that the service is completely unresponsive.
- Account Logouts: A large number of users are being forcibly logged out and cannot sign back in due to “Connection timed out” errors.
- Search and DMs: The search bar is returning zero results, and Direct Messages are currently stuck in “Sending” status.
Why is X (Twitter) Down Today?
While Elon Musk and the X Engineering team have yet to release an official post-mortem, tech analysts are pointing to a potential conflict with the platform’s latest infrastructure updates.
Just days ago, Musk confirmed that X Money, the platform’s new peer-to-peer payment system, had entered internal beta testing. Industry experts speculate that backend integration for the “Everything App” financial features may have triggered a system-wide database failure. Additionally, some reports suggest a potential issue with Cloudflare or a massive API v2 glitch.
Current Status by Region
| Region | Status | Estimated Users Affected |
| United States | ❌ Critical Outage | 50M+ |
| India | ❌ Major Disruption | 25M+ |
| United Kingdom | ❌ Critical Outage | 15M+ |
| European Union | ⚠️ Partial Access | 30M+ |
What to Do While X Is Down
If you need your social media fix or want to check for official updates, consider these alternatives:
- Check Downdetector: Monitor the live Twitter Status Page.
- Threads & Bluesky: The hashtags #TwitterDown and #XDown are currently trending on rival platforms as users migrate to confirm the news.
- Clear App Cache: Some Android users have found temporary success by clearing their app cache, though this does not fix the server-side feed issues.
- Try the Web Version: In some cases, the desktop browser version (X.com) may be more stable than the mobile app during the initial recovery phase.
About the Author
Sarah Klein, JD, is a licensed attorney and legal content strategist with over 12 years of experience across civil, criminal, family, and regulatory law. At All About Lawyer, she covers a wide range of legal topics — from high-profile lawsuits and courtroom stories to state traffic laws and everyday legal questions — all with a focus on accuracy, clarity, and public understanding.
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