Twitter experiences widespread outage

Twitter experienced a global outage late Wednesday, according to numerous reports from Twitter users and the online tracker Downdetector.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many Twitter accounts were impacted by the outage. As of just before 8 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Downdetector had tracked more than 10,000 user reports of outages. Virtually all 10,000 reports had emerged over the course of the previous hour.

According to Downdetector, reports of the outage started in the United Kingdom, followed by Canada, Germany, Italy, and France. Downdetector said the vast majority of people impacted by the outage were using the Twitter website, not the company’s apps.

Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A massive global outage is an outcome that observers and analysts have long feared could take place once billionaire Elon Musk took over the company. In October, shortly before the takeover, The Post reported on Musk’s internal plans to save money, which included making large cuts to the data centers that keep the site running.

Since his takeover, Musk has fired thousands of staff members, including engineers, and many others have quit, leaving Twitter with a skeleton crew.

Twitter operates three major data centers globally. Musk ordered the biggest data center in Sacramento to be shut down on Christmas, provoking anguish among current and former engineers, according to a person familiar with the order who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.

The person said that in group chats among current and former engineers on Wednesday, some speculated that the outage was triggered by a software update gone wrong.