Elon Musk’s highly anticipated interview with former US President Donald Trump on X (formerly Twitter) faced significant technical challenges on August 12, 2024. The event, scheduled to begin at 8:00 PM ET, was delayed by approximately 40 minutes due to what Musk described as a ‘massive DDOS attack’ on the platform.Musk tweeted, ‘There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on X. We are working to shut it down,’. He later added, ‘This massive attack illustrates that many are opposed to people hearing what Trump has to say’. The interview eventually proceeded with a smaller number of live listeners, with Musk promising to publish the unedited audio later.Despite the technical difficulties, which included audio compression issues that reportedly made Trump’s speech sound distorted, the conversation attracted over a million listeners. Trump began by congratulating Musk for ‘breaking every record’ with the large number of listeners, although his claim of attracting 60 million people to the Space was met with silence from Musk.The interview covered various topics, including a recent alleged assassination attempt on Trump in Butler County, Pennsylvania. Notably, Musk endorsed Trump as the president of the country during the conversation.This event comes at a critical time for Trump’s campaign, which has reportedly struggled since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. It also occurs against the backdrop of warnings from the European Commission to Musk about X’s content moderation practices.The technical issues and the nature of the interview have sparked debate. Critics argue that the platform’s history of hosting far-right content and lax moderation make such high-profile political events risky. Meanwhile, Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, responded to EU concerns by stating that the EU should ‘focus on its own issues and not interfere with the US presidential election’.
Key points
- Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump on X was delayed by a reported massive DDOS attack.
- The interview eventually proceeded with over a million listeners despite technical difficulties.
- Musk endorsed Trump as president during the conversation, highlighting the political nature of the event.
- The European Commission has warned Musk about X’s content moderation practices, adding controversy to the interview.
Contradictions👾There are conflicting reports about the exact number of listeners, with some sources citing ‘over a million’ and Trump claiming ’60 million’.
👾While Musk attributed the delay to a DDOS attack, some sources suggest that audio compression issues may have been the culprit.
