Elon Musk's X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) went down again on Friday, marking the second time this week users have been left refreshing their feeds to no avail. If you're keeping track at home, that's a lot of downtime for a social media platform.

Error Messages Pile Up

Users across the country found themselves staring at error messages or watching the app briefly flicker to life before crashing again. Downdetector started lighting up around 10 a.m. Eastern time with thousands of outage reports, and the problems were still ongoing as of this reporting.

The scale wasn't small either. More than 74,000 users in the U.S. alone flagged issues between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. EST, according to Downdetector. The website and app simply weren't loading properly, leaving the platform effectively unusable for a significant chunk of its user base.

X's Week From Hell

This wasn't X's only problem this week. Beyond the technical failures, the platform has been dealing with serious international backlash over its Grok AI chatbot, which allowed users to generate sexually explicit images of women and children in early January.

The European Commission didn't mince words, calling the content "illegal" and "appalling" while condemning the AI's ability to produce sexualized images of minors. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology went further, ordering X to conduct a "comprehensive technical, procedural and governance-level review" of Grok by Jan. 5.

When It Rains, It Pours

X isn't alone in its infrastructure struggles. Verizon Communications (VZ) experienced a nationwide outage on Wednesday that knocked out calling, texting and data services for hours. The telecom giant restored service by Wednesday night and announced it would issue $20 credits to affected customers.

Between social media platforms crashing and major carriers going dark, it's been a rough week for anyone who relies on staying connected.