Elon Musk's highly anticipated livestream with former US President Donald Trump faced significant technical difficulties due to a massive DDoS attack, forcing Musk to scale down the live audience.
The livestream, hosted on the platform X, was delayed as users struggled to gain access.
In response to the glitch, Musk posted on X, stating, "Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later."
Despite these efforts, many users encountered numerous issues while attempting to join the livestream, with terms like "crashed," "unable," and "#TwitterBlackout" trending on the platform shortly after the event's scheduled 8 p.m. ET start time.
Desktop users were greeted with a pop-up message reading "this space is not available," accompanied by a monkey emoji, while those attempting to join via the mobile app were met with an unresponsive, greyed-out screen.
This incident is reminiscent of previous technical challenges X faced when Musk attempted to host broadcast events with other prominent figures. Last year's "Spaces" event, which introduced Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' brief presidential bid, was marred by bugs and audio issues. Musk later attributed those problems to an overloaded server.
Aware of the potential for technical difficulties, Musk had conducted streaming tests on Sunday night to ensure X's systems were prepared. Despite these precautions, the platform struggled to handle the volume of users.
Trump's appearance on the livestream comes after his recent interview with live streamer Adin Ross at his Mar-a-Lago residence, which set a new viewing record on the streaming platform 'Kick.' Musk, who owns X, recently endorsed Trump's candidacy, a notable departure from the usual neutrality maintained by social media platform leaders. This endorsement followed an assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania.
Trump's account on X was previously suspended following the January 6, 2021, attack on Capitol Hill but was reinstated under Musk's ownership. His planned discussion with Musk follows Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' announcement of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.