On a night that promised a high-profile conversation between two controversial figures, Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) experienced significant technical difficulties.
The planned interview between Musk and former President Donald Trump, scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, was delayed due to what Musk described as a “massive DDOS attack.”
Musk’s Explanation and Subsequent Actions
At 8:18 p.m. ET, Musk took to X to address the outage:
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack typically overwhelms servers with an influx of requests, rendering them unable to function normally. However, this can be difficult to distinguish from a surge in legitimate user traffic, especially for an event generating substantial public interest.
Conflicting Reports and Skepticism
Interestingly, The Verge reported that an unnamed source at X contradicted Musk’s claim, stating there was a “99%” chance that “Elon was lying” about the attack. This discrepancy raises questions about the true nature of the technical issues faced by the platform.
Platform Capacity and User Interest
Musk claimed that X had previously tested its system “with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier today.” Given X’s reported user base of approximately 500 million worldwide, it’s conceivable that the Trump-Musk interview could attract an audience exceeding this threshold.
Following the initial delay, Musk announced:
“We will proceed with the smaller number of concurrent listeners at 8:30 p.m. ET and then post the unedited audio immediately thereafter.”
The interview eventually began around 8:40 p.m. ET, albeit with a reduced live audience.
History of Technical Challenges
This isn’t the first time X’s Spaces audio platform has faced difficulties during high-profile events. A similar incident occurred in May 2023 when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis attempted to announce his presidential campaign on the platform.
Amidst the confusion, cryptocurrency scammers attempted to capitalize on the situation. A YouTube video (which has now been taken down) featuring a deepfake of Musk attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers. Users are strongly advised against clicking any links associated with such content, as they are likely to be fraudulent.
