Elon Musk claims live Trump interview on X derailed by DDoS

Once-great platform tanks another major political livestream, bigly

Elon Musk has blamed a "DDoS" attack for a forty-minute delay in the start of his live-streamed interview, hosted on X, with presidential candidate Donald Trump.

The interview was hosted in an X Space – the service's platform that allows live-streamed audio content.

"We tested the system with eight million concurrent listeners earlier today," Musk Xeeted ahead of the event. But as the scheduled start ran late, he alleged: "There appears to be a massive DDoS attack on 𝕏. Working on shutting it down. Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later."

The Register tuned into the event a few minutes after its planned start and was offered elevator music and a notification the event would soon be underway.

The interview commenced some 40 minutes after its advertised time. Live audience statistics reported 1.1 to 1.3 million attendees, human or otherwise, during the portions of the event The Register observed – although during the stream Trump claimed that the event had an audience of 60 million or more, exceeding targets of 25 million.

The Register has found no evidence of a denial of service attack directed at X. Check Point Software's live cyber threat map does not record unusual levels of activity at the time of writing. NetScout's real-time DDoS map recorded only small attacks on the US.

If a DDoS was indeed the reason for the delayed start of the event, it appears not to have impacted the rest of X's operations – there were plenty of posts commenting on the problems with the Space occupied by the interview. And Musk was tweeting from the very network said to be under attack.

This is not the first time an X-hosted political event has struggled. In May 2023, would-be Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis's livestreamed campaign launch crashed and featured regular unplanned silences.

The Trump interview, once it got going, featured rhetoric and verbiage that will be familiar to followers of both participants.

Trump criticized the policies of the Biden administration, described his political opponents as dangerous radicals, warned of dire consequences for the United States if he is not elected, and made some baffling references to matters such as "nuclear warming."

The two men both bemoaned over-regulation as a handbrake on business and innovation, and called for reform. They found common ground on the issue of rapid inter-city rapid transport infrastructure. Trump touted trains, Musk preferred traffic tunnels.

Europe was watching

One person intently interested in the Musk/Trump chat was European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who used X to share a letter sent to Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino reminding the duo of laws that require designated social media platforms to moderate some content. Breton's letter referred to recent social unrest in the UK that is felt to have been fueled by misinformation posted to X.

Yaccarino described Breton's letter as "an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US. It also patronizes European citizens, suggesting they are incapable of listening to a conversation and drawing their own conclusions."

Elon was more blunt.

The EU has since distanced itself from Breton's letter, saying it was sent without approval from Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.

See earlier: X tops charts for misinformation, EU official says and EU officials say X’s paid-for blue check deceives users and breaks law.

The conversation occasionally grazed on tech, with Trump worrying that AI's potential may not be realized due to current energy policy that prioritizes renewable sources.

"AI requires twice as much energy as the US already produces," Trump claimed. "You are going to need tremendous electricity, almost double what we produce for the country if you can believe it."

Musk opined that solar generation will become the major source of energy in the US. The tycoon also stated that as Tesla makes electric cars and that he's really into solar power, he should not be assumed to hold right wing political views.

The social media, automotive, rocketry, brain implant, AI, tunneling, tequila, and flamethrower entrepreneur also told listeners that Tesla cars are designed to help buyers go green without compromise.

"We do not believe caring for the environment should mean you should suffer," he noted, adding that cars should be "sexy."

He pointed out that Tesla makes models named S, 3, X, and Y – which sort of spells "SEXY."

"That's the most expensive joke out there," Musk mused.

But maybe not as darkly funny – or expensive – as spending $44 billion on a social media platform that struggles to handle marquee events, picks fights with advertisers, and allegedly ignores at least some financial obligations to staff. ®

PS: While most of us assume Twitter, in its slimmed-down form, was unable to handle the load of thousands of users and bots flooding the Trump Space, XLab (part of Qi'anxin, one of the largest infosec outfits in China) reckons there was a DDoS attack against X from Mirai-controlled devices and other traffic sources. That said, some are skeptical that XLab has got this right.