Elon Musk’s Interview with Donald Trump on X Spaces Platform
Elon Musk’s highly anticipated interview with former President Donald Trump was disrupted by a technical glitch on Monday, preventing people from joining the audio conversation on the X Spaces platform. Musk tweeted that the platform was experiencing a “massive” denial-of-service attack (DDOS), which overwhelmed it with data and took it offline.
Technical Issues and X Spaces Platform
Eighteen minutes into the conversation, scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET, users reported being unable to access X. Musk had been promoting the event as a conversation rather than an interview, testing the system with 8 million concurrent listeners. Despite the technical difficulties, the interview finally began at 8:42 p.m., with approximately 1.3 million people listening by 9:40 p.m.
Challenges and Trump’s Previous Interviews
X has faced several technical issues since Musk took over the company, leading to disruptions during important conversations. Former President Trump had previously given an interview on X in May 2023, which was also marred by glitches caused by server strain from high listener numbers.
DeSantis, who was mocked by Trump during the launch of his primary campaign, experienced technical issues during an event on X, resulting in a limited audience reach. DeSantis eventually dropped out of the race after a poor performance in the Iowa caucuses.
Despite these challenges, Trump has continued to engage with his audience on social media platforms like Truth Social and returned to X on Monday morning for the first time since being blocked in 2021.
These technical difficulties highlight the importance of robust infrastructure and support personnel to handle high traffic events on digital platforms.
