US presidential candidate Donald Trump's interview with Elon Musk on the entrepreneur's social media platform X, set for Monday evening, faced technical issues. Many users couldn't access the live stream, leading Musk to postpone the event.
"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," Musk wrote in an X post at 8:18 p.m., referring to a type of cyberattack in which a server or network is flooded with traffic in an attempt to shut it down. He later wrote, “We will proceed with the smaller number of concurrent listeners at 8:30 ET and then post the unedited audio immediately thereafter.”
The live interview is supposed to help the former US president reach millions of potential voters directly and also provide an opportunity for the microblogging platform to redeem itself after some struggles.
His Democratic rival for the Nov. 5 election, Vice President Kamala Harris, has erased Trump's lead in opinion polls and energized Democratic voters with a series of high-energy rallies. Harris' momentum could gain further traction with the Democratic National Convention next week in Chicago.
Musk, a Democrat until a few years ago, endorsed Trump's candidacy two days after the former president was wounded during an attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally last month.
On Monday morning, Trump returned to X for the first time in a year, posting a video highlighting his claim without evidence that the four criminal prosecutions he faces are politically motivated. The account had been suspended by the platform's previous owners following the January 6 attack due to concerns that Trump might incite further violence.
His last post on X was from August 2023, was an appeal for donations and featured a mug shot taken after his booking at an Atlanta jail in connection with felony charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
(With inputs from Reuters)
