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Social Media Platform X Back Up after Global Outage

A woman holds a smartphone displaying the logo of US social network X (former Twitter), in Nantes, western France, on November 29, 2023. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)
A woman holds a smartphone displaying the logo of US social network X (former Twitter), in Nantes, western France, on November 29, 2023. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)
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Social Media Platform X Back Up after Global Outage

A woman holds a smartphone displaying the logo of US social network X (former Twitter), in Nantes, western France, on November 29, 2023. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)
A woman holds a smartphone displaying the logo of US social network X (former Twitter), in Nantes, western France, on November 29, 2023. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, was restored globally early Thursday, with over 77,000 US users facing issues at the peak of the outage, Reuters said on Thursday.
Users in Canada, Britain, France and other countries reported issues with accessing both X and X Pro, earlier known as TweetDeck.
Over 7,000 users in Canada and Britain experienced issues with the platform, according to Downdetector data.
Downdetector tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources including users.
The cause of the outage, which began a little after 12 am ET(0500 GMT), is not yet known, and emails to X's communications and support teams bounced back.
Users on X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, experienced an inability to view posts, receiving a "Welcome to X!" message. X Pro users encountered a message that said "Waiting for posts."
The social media platform faced upheaval and uncertainty following Musk's $44 billion acquisition, leading to layoffs, including numerous engineers responsible for fixing and preventing service outages, sources have previously told Reuters.
Users took to rival Meta's app, Threads, to discuss the outage, citing difficulties in accessing posts, replies and profiles on X.

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Microsoft Pledges to Protect European Operations, Unveils Data Center Expansion

A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
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Microsoft Pledges to Protect European Operations, Unveils Data Center Expansion

A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)
A Microsoft logo is pictured on a store in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, January 25, 2021. (Reuters)

Microsoft pledged Wednesday to fight any US government order to halt data center operations in Europe as it sought to soothe concerns among European customers that trans-Atlantic tensions would lead to service disruptions.

The company's president, Brad Smith, said it's not something that officials are talking about in Washington, D.C. but it is a “real concern” for Microsoft's customers across Europe, which include governments.

President Donald Trump has stoked tensions between the US and Europe with his tariff-fueled trade war, and alarmed European leaders with policy changes, including pausing intelligence sharing with Ukraine, that throw into doubt his administration's commitment to the trans-Atlantic relationship, The AP news reported.

Smith, speaking at an event in Brussels, tried to allay concerns as he announced that the company was expanding data center operations across Europe.

“What we want Europeans to know is that they can count on us,” he said in a speech.

“In the unlikely event we are ever ordered by any government anywhere in the world to suspend or cease cloud operations in Europe, we are committing that Microsoft will promptly and vigorously contest such a measure using all legal avenues available, including by pursuing litigation in court,” Smith wrote in a Wednesday blog post.

He noted that Microsoft has experience fighting lawsuits from the previous Trump administration as well as from former President Barack Obama’s administration.

“If we ever find ourselves losing we will put in place business continuity arrangements” that include storing computer code in Switzerland that European partners can access, he said.

Microsoft is making five digital commitments to Europe, including increasing its data center capacity by 40 in 16 countries over the next two years, Smith said. The expansion will cost tens of billions of dollars annually. Smith declined to be more specific about the cost when asked by reporters.

The expansion comes amid calls for Europe to assert tech and data sovereignty by weaning itself off reliance from big US cloud data service providers, including Microsoft, Amazon and, to a lesser extent, Google.

“Given recent geopolitical volatility, we recognize that European governments likely will consider additional options,” and Microsoft is committed to collaborating with European companies, Smith said.