Donald Trump

Elon Musk

X owner Elon Musk claims the social media platform was hit with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack as his slated interview with presidential hopeful Donald Trump was set to kick off.&nbsp;
“There appears to be a massive DDoS attack on X. Working on shutting it down,” Musk posted to X on Aug. 12. A <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/learn/8-most-common-cyberattacks-and-how-to-prevent-them">DDoS attack</a> aims to flood a network or service with traffic to disrupt and deny legitimate users from being able to use it.
It comes as technical issues plagued the X Spaces Musk and Trump were scheduled to hold at 8:00 pm Eastern Time as multiple X users complained they could not join.
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-08/d7d7d7b4-fb39-4d78-898f-666366b82c7f.png" alt="Musk claims X hit by ‘massive DDoS attack’ delaying Trump interview" title="">
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1823152153445404990" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Elon Musk</a>
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The site showed the stream was “not available,” but around 120,000 still managed to join. In a&nbsp;separate <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1823153581882810650" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">post</a>, Musk said X tested the system earlier in the day with eight million concurrent listeners.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/venezuela-blocks-binance-presidential-election-dispute">Venezuela blocks Binance, X amid presidential election dispute </a>
Musk managed to start the interview shortly after 8:30 pm ET, which he earlier said would “proceed with a smaller number of live listeners” with unedited audio to be posted “immediately thereafter.”
“As this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say,” Musk said when opening the interview.
Throughout the two-hour-long interview, Trump talked about — among other things — the attempt on his life, illegal immigration and foreign relations, and attacked President Joe Biden and his now rival presidential candidate, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/fed-action-customers-bank-harris-crypto-reset">Vice President&nbsp;Kamala Harris</a><a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/fed-action-customers-bank-harris-crypto-reset"></a>. 
Despite Trump’s <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-cautions-current-administration-not-sell-bitcoin">pro-crypto push</a> and Musk’s long-time love of Dogecoin (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/doge-price-index">DOGE</a>), crypto wasn’t mentioned once.
Polymarket punters bet just over $1 million on a 56% <a href="https://polymarket.com/event/what-will-trump-say-during-elon-interview?tid=1723513601960" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">chance</a>&nbsp;of Trump mentioning “crypto” or “Bitcoin” as the interview started, which both quickly dropped and continued to fall throughout the interview to hit a low of 1% before the interview ended.
Before the interview, Commissioner for Internal Market of the European Union, Thierry Breton,&nbsp;<a href="https://x.com/ThierryBreton/status/1823033048109367549" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">warned</a> Musk in a letter that he must <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/elon-musk-x-face-eu-fines-200-m-dsa-violations-twitter-blue-check">comply with EU laws</a>, claiming his interview with Trump carried “a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino <a href="https://x.com/lindayaX/status/1823052643733823640" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">claimed</a> Breton’s letter was “an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US.”
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 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-08/1d46011a-269d-4946-bc31-277ee24e03d3.png" alt="Musk claims X hit by ‘massive DDoS attack’ delaying Trump interview" title="">
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 Source: <a href="https://x.com/lindayaX/status/1823052643733823640" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">Linda Yaccarino</a>
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She claimed it ”patronizes European citizens” and suggests they’re “incapable of listening to a conversation and drawing their own conclusions.”
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/6-questions-goggles-guy-who-saved-crypto/">6 questions for Goggles Guy who ‘saved’ crypto with question to Trump</a>
Update (Aug. 13, 2:50 am UTC): This article has been updated to add comments from Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Musk claims X hit by ‘massive DDoS attack’ delaying Trump interview

Cointelegraph

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