Is X (formerly twitter) down? Users report major service disruptions across the globe
- By Reuters -
- Jan 16, 2026
Elon Musk’s X platform, once known as Twitter, is reportedly down, with users reporting widespread issues. DownDetector shows a major surge in reports starting around 10 a.m. ET (7 a.m. PT) on Friday, January 16.
There were more than 41,000 reports of issues with the social media platform as of 10:35 a.m. ET in the United States, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages by collating status reports from a number of sources.
In other news, Elon Musk’s AI company, X, has restricted the controversial Grok image-generation feature to paying subscribers only, following intense criticism from around the world.
The tool had drawn widespread condemnation for allowing users to generate sexualized and explicit images of women and children.
X AI Tool Draws International Criticism
Previously, Grok’s image-generation feature was available to anyone on X, with daily limits. Users could upload images and ask the AI to modify them or create sexualized or inappropriate versions.
The feature quickly became a tool for non-consensual images of children, public figures, actors, and models, sparking concern from multiple governments.
In response, X announced that only paying subscribers would now have access to generate and edit images on the platform. The restrictions, however, do not apply to the standalone Grok app, which continues to allow image creation without a subscription at the time of publication.
Elon Musk and X have publicly condemned the misuse of Grok for creating inappropriate content and reiterated that violations of platform rules would be treated the same as posting illegal content.