Is X Broken Again? Users Left Frustrated by Outgoing Link Glitch

X, formerly known as Twitter, has been undergoing a challenging period. Previously, the platform witnessed an exodus of advertisers following an antisemitic controversy involving Elon Musk. Musk, during an interview at a conference, further exacerbated the situation by suggesting that the departure of advertisers could lead to the social media site's shutdown, accompanied by the use of abusive language. Now, a new problem surfaced on the platform in the early hours of December 14. Users reported a notable X outage where outgoing links were non-functional for over an hour, displaying an error message upon clicking. Although the issue is reportedly resolved, the company has not provided any official statement on the incident, raising concerns, especially considering this isn't the first occurrence.

As reported by The Verge, users attempting to access URL links during the outage encountered a peculiar error message stating, "This page is down. I scream. You scream. We all scream... for us to fix this page. We'll stop making jokes and get things up and running soon." The problem occurred at around 1 AM on Thursday (Wednesday afternoon in the US).

During a typical scenario, clicking on an external link directs users to a redirection portal, capturing the URL data before redirecting them. However, this process did not occur during the outage. Users were instead redirected to a portal displaying the error message without processing the link.

Interestingly, this isn't the first instance of such an X outage. The Verge previously reported a similar issue in March 2023 when links became unresponsive, and images failed to load correctly. An error message during that outage stated, “your current API plan does not include access to this endpoint.” At the time, X attributed the problem to an internal change with unintended consequences. However, reports suggested it could have resulted from a mistake by the only reliability engineer in the company, as Musk had fired the rest during a significant layoff spree.

With ongoing issues and an advertiser exodus, X faces a turbulent period. The resolution of these challenges will depend on the strategies adopted by Musk, CEO Linda Yaccarino, and other stakeholders in navigating these difficult times.