There have been reports across social media of Elon Musk's X users being stuck in an infinite loop and, in some cases, being locked out of their X accounts. It appears that the required two-factor security changes failed.
On October 24, X said in a post that it is asking users who rely on passkeys or hardware security keys (such as Yubikey) as a two-factor authentication method to re-register using the x.com domain. (Users who use authenticator apps are not affected.)
Mr. X said this is part of an effort to retire the old twitter.com domain, which currently redirects to x.com. This change went into effect in May 2024. The problem is that the passkey and security key are digitally tied to the old twitter.com domain and cannot be transferred to x.com. This means users must manually unregister and reregister using their new x.com domain.
As part of the switch, X warned that starting November 10, customers' accounts would be locked until they re-registered or chose a different two-factor authentication method.
Now that the deadline has passed, many users are reporting being locked out of their accounts, citing error messages or being stuck in an endless loop saying they can't re-register their passkeys or security keys.
This is the latest problem plaguing X, which is now owned by Elon Musk after acquiring Twitter, as it was then known, for $44 billion. Since taking charge of the social networking site, the company has experienced major layoffs and countless controversies.
X did not respond to requests for comment, but Musk, who currently owns X, is posting normally and is likely unaffected by the changes.