Venezuela, xAI, Maduro, Blue check, Media Matters, X

X (formerly Twitter) suffered a global outage on Friday, January 16, 2026, as the social media platform was down for tens of thousands of users worldwide.

Outage tracking website Downdetector.com. confirmed the development.

There were more than 41,000 reports of issues with X 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.

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Users in the UK reported more than 13,600 issues with the platform at 3:24 p.m., and more than 10,200 reports were received at 3:54 p.m., the website shows.

More than 3,000 issues ‌were reported in ⁠India.

Social media platforms block 4.7m underage accounts in Australia

Issues were also reported in Australia, with more than 2,700 users reporting problems, according to Sky News.

The actual number of users affected by the X outage could be greater as the figures are based on reports by users.

X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Earlier this week, the platform experienced a similar outage that peaked at more than 28,300 logged issues in the U.S. and more than 8,000 reports in the UK.

The Star

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