Elon Musk’s plans for a cosy evening with Donald Trump on X were thrown off course yesterday, when the conversation was allegedly hit by a “massive DDOS attack”.
However, the cyberattack claims have been questioned by social media users which asked whether some other issue could be to blame.
The alleged attack, which led to a 40-minute delay, came just hours after the X boss launched a foul-mouthed attack on EU digital commissioner Thierry Breton, after the head regulator wrote to Musk, reminding him of his obligations under the Digital Services Act.
The Trump-Musk sitdown was due to kick off around 5PM Pacific time. However, it was soon clear that there were technical issues, as there also were when Musk held a similar pow-wow with one-time Republican candidate Ron DeSantis.
However, Musk quickly posted: “There appears to be a massive DDoS attack on X. Working on shutting it down.”
This was rapidly followed by Musk’s assurance that X had tested the system with “8 million concurrent users earlier today”.
In the end, the conversation got underway 40 minutes late before running for around 2 hours. According to X, Trump’s interview received 73 million views.
Even Musk seemed to recognise that might test the patience of many listeners, with the X boss posting: “Anyone have a <1 hour edit of the highlights…That’s what most people will be looking for tomorrow.”
Musk says his Spaces is failing because of a “DDOS attack” and Trump says because it has been “overwhelmed with listeners.”
— Richard Hall (@_RichardHall) August 13, 2024
A perfect insight into both of their minds. pic.twitter.com/yAXEqh0Psr
See also: Has Elon Musk's xAI broken a supercomputer deployment record?
Presumably, people will also be looking for the source of the apparent DDoS attack, though no group has immediately claimed responsibility.
Many commenters questioned whether X’s own infrastructure could have been responsible, with some asking why no other X.com services were affected.
@YourAnonNews claimed: “Morons think it’s a DDoS attack when half the world wants to watch two stupid idiots make fools out of themselves. No. It’s not a DDOS attack.”
Not that Trump is not the target of cyberattacks. The Republican candidate took to his own platform, Truth Social, over the weekend to blame Iran for an email hack that resulted in internal campaign documents being offered to journalists.
