‘Massive’ Cyberattack | Elon Musk Claims His Interview With Donald Trump On X Was Disrupted

(Los Angeles) Elon Musk’s interview with Donald Trump started more than 40 minutes late Monday on the social network X, due to a “massive” cyberattack according to the platform’s owner.

The interview was initially inaccessible for long periods of time due to technical issues. Mr. Musk said they were caused by “a massive DDOS attack,” a so-called denial of service attack, designed to bottleneck the company’s servers and cause an outage.

“This massive attack illustrates the opposition of many people to even hearing what President Trump has to say,” said the Tesla and SpaceX boss, when the interview finally got underway.

Elon Musk has promised a “very entertaining” time with the man he now openly supports in the race for the White House.

The conversation between the two billionaires was broadcast on Donald Trump’s account, which had been suspended after the attack on the Capitol by his supporters, but reinstated after the acquisition of the social network by Elon Musk in 2022.

The former president, however, had not yet taken back control of his former favourite communication channel, continuing to favour his own platform, Truth Social, for his daily publications.

But a salvo of messages on Monday – between campaign videos and promotion of the interview – signaled the return to X of the man who is currently trying to relaunch his campaign, which has been struggling since Kamala Harris entered the race on the Democratic side.

The interview will be conducted “without a predetermined script, without limits on the topics covered and should be very entertaining!” assured Elon Musk.

But the exercise, between two men accustomed to outrageous and controversial statements, will also be risky, on a social network accused of having become a mouthpiece for the radical right and lax in the face of disinformation.

(Re)read “Decryption: how Elon Musk influences the presidential election”

Fiasco

The interview recalls the fiasco already suffered by X during the campaign entry of former Republican candidate Ron DeSantis, broadcast on the platform and weighed down by technical problems.

Elon Musk regularly attacks Democrats on the platform, where he has 193 million subscribers.

Last month, he officially gave his support to the Republican candidate, just after the assassination attempt against the latter.

The South African native has not always been a fervent defender of Donald Trump, with whom he has even publicly clashed. But the two men have continued to grow closer in recent months.

They met in March and have been speaking regularly on the phone ever since, according to the Wall Street Journal. An advisory role for the tech mogul is even under discussion if the former president regains the keys to the White House.

The 53-year-old billionaire recently denied that he was planning to donate tens of millions of dollars a month to the former president’s campaign, as the press had reported. He spoke of levels that were “much lower.”

“I have great respect for Elon Musk, and he has great respect for me,” Trump said at a news conference last week. “Like me, he believes this country is in great trouble and in great danger.”

Different audience

Last week, Donald Trump had already sought to reach a different audience by granting an interview to a controversial influencer, Adin Ross, who is also committed to his cause and as popular as Elon Musk with young men.

The former president will be in North Carolina on Wednesday to talk about the economy, then in Pennsylvania for a rally on Saturday. However, his campaign has been struggling since Joe Biden’s shock withdrawal from the race.

While the 78-year-old Republican appeared to be in a good position against the 81-year-old president, Kamala Harris’ candidacy has generated a wave of enthusiasm, which is reflected in the polls.

After a tour of key states last week, the vice president will be with Joe Biden on Thursday for a trip on the theme of the cost of living.

Next big event: the Democratic Party convention next week in Chicago, gathered around the “ticket” formed by the 59-year-old candidate and her new running mate Tim Walz.

EU warns Musk ahead of Trump meeting

The European Commissioner for Digital Affairs, Thierry Breton, warned Elon Musk, owner of X, on Monday, a few hours before his live interview with Donald Trump, reminding him of the moderation obligations on the social network to avoid “the amplification of dangerous content”.

In a letter addressed to the American billionaire and broadcast on X, Thierry Breton reminded him of his obligations under the new European legislation on digital services (DSA), stressing in particular that this moderation requirement applies to all users of X, “including yourself”.

This exchange “will also be accessible to users [de X] within the EU,” noted Thierry Breton in his letter.

Pointing out that he controls “a platform of more than 300 million users across the world, a third of whom are in Europe”, the European Commissioner reminded the billionaire that he has a legal obligation to respect European law.

“My services and I will be extremely vigilant […] regarding possible violations of the DSA and we will not hesitate to use all the tools at our disposal, including temporary measures, if this proves necessary to protect European citizens,” Mr Breton continued.

The DSA requires all online platforms to have a system in place to flag problematic content and to act “promptly” to remove any illegal content or make access to it impossible as soon as they become aware of it.

Elon Musk brushed aside this warning a few hours later on his social network X. In a provocative post, the owner of the platform published a meme insulting the European Commissioner, while ironically saying that he would never dare to publish something “so crude and irresponsible”.

In the spring of 2023, Thierry Breton went to San Francisco (California) to explain to Elon Musk, then the new owner of Twitter (later renamed X), the rules to be respected in Europe. “We are on the same wavelength,” the American billionaire said alongside the commissioner, all smiles, in a scene that went viral.

Over the months, this displayed complicity has given way to often tense exchanges via social networks.

In July, Elon Musk accused Brussels of trying to negotiate a “secret deal” with him to “censor content without saying so.” “There has never been – and there never will be – a ‘secret deal.’ With anyone,” counterattacked Thierry Breton. “It’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to propose commitments… See you soon.” [au tribunal ou pas] “.

Agence France-Presse