Elon Musk’s X platform under ‘massive cyber-attack’
South Africa
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10 Mar 2025
Elon Musk, a billionaire entrepreneur, believes that "a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved" in the massive cyber-attack on his microblogging platform, X.
Pretoria-born Musk announced the attack on X this evening, saying: “There was (still is) a massive cyber-attack against 𝕏.
“We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved.”
Musk went on to say his team in “tracing” the attack.
The tech billionaire was recently praised for playing a significant role in President Donald Trump's administration.
However, in recent weeks, he has come under heavy fire for some of the decisions he has made under the Department of Government Efficiency, which he oversees alongside Vivek Ramaswamy.
The billionaire has also faced criticism in his home country for challenging South Africa's laws governing business ownership.
Musk claimed on his platform X that his skin tone prevented his Starlink satellite company from operating in South Africa.
He said: "Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I'm not black.”
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, which oversees telecoms, rejected the claim, stating that Starlink had not submitted an application for a licence.
In addition, Musk has accused his birth country of committing "genocide" against white people. This, in part, relates to new land expropriation act and the South African government's decision to take Israel to court over its war with Hamas; as a result the Trump administration has now sanctioned South Africa, cutting off aid funding.
“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed,” Trump said.
In response, South African President Ramaphosa said: “South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The South African government has not confiscated any land.
“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the Constitution.”
Musk responded to Ramaphosa statement on X, saying: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”