Musk’s Interview With Trump Marred By Technical Glitches

Elon Musk’s highly anticipated interview with former President Donald Trump was plagued by technical difficulties on Monday. Users could not join the audio conversation on X’s Spaces platform.

Musk stated on X 18 minutes into a talk scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. EDT that the platform was facing a “massive” denial-of-service assault (DDOS), which is a federal illegal conduct that involves flooding a site with data to overwhelm it and knock it offline.

Musk | AP News Image

Musk’s Interview With Trump Marred By Technical Glitches

Outage tracker: The downdetector noted increased complaints of X being inaccessible to users beginning before the interview. However, it was unclear whether this was due to a malicious attack. The remainder of X looked to be functioning fine, and X users speculated if there was a DDOS assault or if the Spaces event was simply overcrowded with people attempting to listen in.

Musk had promoted the event earlier in the day, describing it as a conversation rather than an interview. According to him, X “tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier today.”

The interview began at 8:42 p.m., and by 9:40 p.m., approximately 1.3 million individuals were listening in. Trump thanked Musk for “breaking every record in the book tonight” with the number of people attempting to listen.

X has faced a slew of technological challenges since Musk took over the company. He has sacked, laid off, or driven out most of its employees, including engineers responsible for operationalizing the site.

Trump had already mocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during his primary campaign, which began with a glitch-filled interview on X in May 2023.

“Wow! The DeSantis Twitter launch was a DISASTER!” In May 2023, Trump wrote on his Truth Social network. “His entire campaign will be a disaster.” WATCH!”

The DeSantis event began with technical difficulties, which Musk blamed on server strain caused by the large number of people attempting to listen in. More than 20 minutes went beyond the intended start time, with users being thrown off, hearing microphone feedback holding music, and coping with various technical issues. The maximum number of listeners listed was approximately 420,000.

Musk’s Interview With Trump Marred By Technical Glitches

DeSantis withdrew from the race following a dismal performance in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses.

Trump, who has been posting on his own social media platform, Truth Social, returned to the X Monday morning, writing for the first time since his ban in 2021. The posts advertised his interview with Musk and included campaign advertisements.

SOURCE | AP