Elon Musk’s Interview with Donald Trump on X Plagued by Technical Issues
Despite being the richest man in the world, Elon Musk found himself facing technical difficulties during his online interview with presidential hopeful Donald Trump on the social media platform X. The interview was delayed by 40 minutes as the platform struggled to overcome glitches, leaving many users frustrated.
This is not the first time X has experienced high-profile malfunctions. In a previous incident in May 2023, Florida governor Ron DeSantis faced similar issues during an interview with Mr. Musk, highlighting the platform’s ongoing technical challenges.
In an attempt to address these issues, Mr. Musk had announced that he would be conducting “system scaling tests” on X’s audio chat feature, known as Spaces, the day before the interview with Mr. Trump. However, despite these preparations, the platform still encountered technical problems, with around 1.3 million people tuning in at one point.
Following the interview, the word “crashed” trended on X as users discussed the high-profile failure. While some blamed Mr. Musk, others speculated that the interview had generated so much interest that it had “crashed the internet.” Mr. Musk, on the other hand, attributed the issues to a cyber attack, claiming that there was a massive DDoS attack on X.
However, experts are divided on the cause of the technical issues. While some believe it could have been a DDoS attack, others argue that the platform may have been struggling with overall listener capacity due to recent layoffs of engineers at X. The lack of conclusive evidence has left the true cause of the malfunction up for debate.
Ultimately, the interview that was meant to showcase X’s capabilities as an “everything app” ended up highlighting the platform’s persistent technical limitations. Whether due to external attacks or internal shortcomings, the incident serves as a reminder that even the most powerful individuals can still face technical challenges in the digital age.
