X owner Elon Musk said Monday night’s Spaces interview with former President Donald Trump was delayed by a “massive” cyberattack, while others noted the disruption was eerily reminiscent of when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launched his glitch-ridden presidential campaign on the platform the previous year.
“There appears to be a massive DDOS attack happening. [Distributed Denial of Service] “Attack on 𝕏. Working to stop it,” Musk posted 18 minutes after the interview was scheduled to start.
“In the worst case scenario, we will reduce the number of live listeners and post the conversations at a later date,” he said, claiming that he tested the space with “8 million concurrent listeners” early Monday morning.
A representative for X did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a company representative said Leaked on Verge Such a cyber attack likely never occurred.
One insider went so far as to say there was a “99% chance” that Musk was lying.
The conversation began just after 8:40 p.m., with X’s owner saying, “As this massive attack shows, many people are opposed to even listening to President Trump.”
Ultimately, over one million listeners tuned in.
Internet users have speculated that the false start to the more than two-hour long interview was likely due to technical issues.
The blunder gave the Harris-Waltz campaign an opening to attack.
“Donald Trump’s extremism and dangerous Project 2025 plan are a feature, not a flaw, of his campaign, and that was made perfectly clear to those unfortunate enough to tune in tonight on X.com,” spokesman Joseph Costello said in a statement.
“The Trump campaign is run by self-absorbed rich people like Elon Musk and Trump himself who have betrayed the middle class and won’t be able to live stream in 2024,” Costello added.
The Democratic campaign also used Trump’s Truth Social platform to repost the former president’s scathing remarks about a similar conversation that took place on May 24, 2023, between Musk and DeSantis.
“Wow! DeSanctus’ Twitter launch is going to be a disaster! His entire campaign is going to be a disaster. Watch!” the 45th President boasted in a message the same day.
The interview, hosted by Musk, lasted just 20 minutes and had more than 400,000 listeners.
The Florida governor was planning to use the unconventional platform to announce his presidential run, along with enthusiastic supporters such as venture capital investor David Sachs.
Both Musk and Sachs, who initially supported DeSantis in the 2024 Republican primary, have since endorsed the 78-year-old Trump for president.
The Tesla CEO refused to donate to any candidates during the Republican primary but has pledged to donate tens of millions of dollars to tech-industry-linked super PACs working to help re-elect President Trump.
Earlier in the day, a senior European Union official had warned Musk that airing the lengthy interview with Trump could lead to “amplification of harmful content”.
The official, Thierry Breton, published a letter he sent to Musk on X, warning him against complying with EU law.
The Trump campaign hit back in a statement, saying European officials should “focus on their own jobs, not trying to interfere in a US presidential election.”
“Let’s be clear: the European Union is an enemy of free speech and has no authority to dictate our election campaign,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang said in a statement.
The FBI also announced Monday it was opening an investigation into possible hacking of Trump campaign documents after receiving anonymous emails containing internal documents related to the vetting of current vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.
