Elon Musk’s much-anticipated interview with former President Donald Trump on the social media platform X faced technical glitches on Monday evening, delaying the start of the event. The interview, which was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET, was marred by reports from social media users who were unable to join X’s livestream platform due to freezing screens.
Musk, the renowned billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, attributed the technical issues to a cyberattack, stating that the company had tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier in the day to prevent any errors. Despite the efforts to rectify the situation, the platform continued to face difficulties, prompting Musk to announce that the interview would proceed at 8:30 p.m. E.T. with those users who were able to successfully join the stream. The “unedited audio” of the interview was promised to be posted immediately afterward.
After nearly an hour of troubleshooting, the conversation eventually began around 8:45 p.m. E.T., with over one million people tuned in, according to X Spaces. Musk initiated the interview by offering an apology for the delay, attributing it to a purported attack on the company’s servers. However, there were no visible signs of an attack, and other areas of X remained operational.
In response to the technical glitch, a Trump campaign spokesperson pointed to Musk’s statement about a potential cyberattack. The incident drew parallels to a previous technical mishap on X in 2023 during Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch announcement.
The interview was intended to be a high-profile event to support the Trump campaign in its efforts to rally supporters following a challenging period since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. Musk had teased the interview as an unscripted, no-limits discussion that promised to be highly entertaining.
As this story continues to unfold, industry experts and analysts are closely monitoring the implications of the technical issues on X’s reputation and its ability to host high-profile events in the future. The incident serves as a reminder of the risks of cyberattacks in the digital age and the challenges of managing live streaming platforms.