Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump was marred by technical issues, which Musk blamed on a cyber attack. The “open-minded independent voters” targeted discussion started 40 minutes after the scheduled time because many could not access it. Musk, who owns X (formerly Twitter), claims that user access was slowed down by a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that “flooded all our data lines.”
What Is A DDoS Attack Musk
DDoS attacks involve swamping a website with traffic to make it unusable. In one of his initial posts, Musk accused the delays on a “huge DDoS attack on X”. According to Anthony Lim, Director at the Centre for Strategic Cyberspace and International Studies in Singapore, DDoS attacks do not usually target just one specific service but rather multiple aspects of a website. Another possible reason for temporary disruptions may be a sudden increase in users.
Andrew Hay from IT firm Damovo supported this view, suggesting that the issues could have been caused by an attempt to hack into X’s broadcast facility while leaving other site areas largely unaffected. He further mentioned how massive DDoS attacks are easy to launch—they merely need multiple compromised systems or exploit a technology vulnerability.
The Interview and Reaction from Viewers Musk
Musk still went ahead with his interview despite the technical hitches. He maintained his support for Trump and pleaded with moderate voters to back him. Musk is hopeful about what lies ahead and the potential for exciting developments. The interview had approximately one million listeners on X Spaces, though Musk had said that they tested it with “8 million concurrent listeners” earlier before the event.
Comparisons With Previous Occurrences
During Musk’s interview, technical difficulties arose similar to those experienced by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during his 2023. White House campaign launch on X; livestream issues also affected this event.
Political Context And Campaign Dynamics
President Trump’s re-election campaign appears to be gaining some momentum in what opinion polls claim is a closer race against the Democrat’s candidate Kamala Harris. Harris’s campaign has benefited from Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Harris could benefit more from the Democratic National Convention next week.
Trump questioned Harris for her lack of interaction with the media since she became a nominee. In this interview, Trump said that he appreciated the opportunity to speak for long hours on X. Musk, who hosts 190 million followers on X and is considered an influential political leader. Joined a new political committee supporting Trump for president recently. Musk later extended the same offer to Vice-President Kamala Harris after the interview to host another event on Spaces X.
