Technical Glitches Mar Elon Musk’s Interview with Trump on X Platform
Elon Musk’s highly anticipated interview with former President Donald Trump encountered significant technical difficulties on Monday, leaving many users unable to join the audio conversation on X’s Spaces platform.
Approximately 18 minutes into the scheduled interview, Musk took to X to report that the platform was experiencing a “massive” denial-of-service attack (DDOS). A DDOS attack, which is considered a federal criminal act, involves overwhelming a site with data to render it inaccessible.
Outage tracker Downdetector noted a spike in reports of X being inaccessible to users shortly before the interview was set to begin. However, it could not be immediately verified whether this was due to a malicious attack or simply an overwhelming number of users attempting to access the event.
While the rest of X appeared to be functioning normally, users questioned the nature of the technical issues, debating whether it was indeed a DDOS attack or if the Spaces event had been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of listeners.
The interview finally commenced at 8:42 p.m., after a significant delay.
This incident is not isolated, as X has faced numerous technical challenges since Musk’s acquisition of the company. The billionaire entrepreneur has significantly reduced the platform’s workforce, including engineers responsible for maintaining site operations.
Interestingly, Trump had previously criticized Florida Governor Ron DeSantis when his primary campaign launch on X in May 2023 was similarly plagued by technical issues. At the time, Trump wrote on his Truth Social network, “Wow! The DeSantis TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!”
The DeSantis event had also experienced delays and technical problems, which Musk attributed to server strain caused by high listener volumes. Users reported being disconnected, hearing microphone feedback and hold music, among other issues.
As the 2024 presidential race heats up, these technical challenges on social media platforms highlight the increasing importance of digital infrastructure in political communications and campaigning.
