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Technology|Musk’s Trump Talk: After Glitchy Start, a Two-Hour Ramble
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/technology/elon-musk-x-donald-trump.html
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Problems in the livestream renewed questions about X’s ability to handle big events, but it also showed how the platform can still grab attention.
By Kate Conger and Ryan Mac
Kate Conger reported from San Francisco and Ryan Mac from Los Angeles.
Aug. 13, 2024, 8:53 a.m. ET
At 8:35 p.m. Eastern time on Monday, a live audio stream on X of a conversation between Elon Musk and former President Donald J. Trump flickered to life after a 35-minute delay — but only for a moment.
Mr. Trump’s mic came on, and a shuffling sound was heard. A second later, his mic cut out. Mr. Musk’s account, which had been logged in and ready, then momentarily disappeared from the conversation entirely.
Seven minutes later, the glitches appeared to be resolved and the discussion began. Mr. Musk, who has endorsed Mr. Trump’s presidential run, and Mr. Trump greeted each other as “Donald” and “Elon.” They then began a friendly chat about immigration, the economy and President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. The two men talked for over two hours with more than one million people listening in at the same time, according to X.
“I congratulate you,” Mr. Trump said to Mr. Musk about the livestream’s audience. “Do I get paid for this or what?”
The conversation on X between Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump had been billed as a triumphant moment for the social media platform, which Mr. Musk bought in 2022. He had been trying to woo Mr. Trump to become active again on a site he once wielded like a megaphone before being barred in 2021 and then, by Mr. Musk’s doing, reinstated. In the end, the event’s bumpy beginning and ensuing banter showcased both the weaknesses and strengths of X under Mr. Musk.
The hiccups getting the livestream going renewed questions about X’s ability to handle high-profile events. Without providing evidence, Mr. Musk blamed the snafu on a “massive” distributed denial of service attack, a type of cyberattack that uses floods of malicious web traffic to overwhelm sites and knock them offline.
