Donald Trump is being interviewed on X by its billionaire owner Elon Musk -- an influential supporter -- as the Republican ex-president rejoins the platform following a lengthy absence. But most users are unable to tune in and are getting an error message on X.
Musk, acknowledged the issue, said ,"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."
The interview, scheduled to take place on Twitter Spaces, has been plagued by technical glitches, with over 25,000 tweets using the hashtag "#crashed". While some users are criticizing the platform, others, including Trump supporters, are boasting that the interview has "crashed" the internet.
Trump sought to turn the problems into a positive, congratulating Musk on the number of people trying to tune in. A counter on X showed as many as 1.3 million people were listening at times during the lengthy conversation.
This development comes despite Musk announcing system scaling tests to prepare for the high-profile conversation. Despite these efforts, the platform has struggled to handle the traffic.
Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter after the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack, recently rejoined the platform.
The snafu recalled a similar event in May 2023, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suffered a chaotic start to his bid for the Republican presidential nomination due to glitches on the platform.
The hour-long broadcast lost sound for extended stretches, and thousands of users were either unable to join or were dropped. DeSantis ultimately lost the nomination to Trump.
