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Elon Musk and Donald Trump hosted a live-streamed conversation on X Spaces Monday night, which broached topics from global warming to electric vehicles to the national debt.
The livestream, originally set to begin at 8 p.m. EST, was delayed for more than 40 minutes, which Musk blamed on a cybersecurity attack on the platform.
There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on ?. Working on shutting it down.
Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
Musk followed up with a post saying the X team had "tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners" with no issue, and they'll proceed with a "smaller number of concurrent listeners" at 8:30 p.m. ET and then "post the unedited audio immediately" after. Musk was clear this was not an interview but a "conversation."
Related: Elon Musk Frantically Emails Employees to 'Fix' Livestream: Report
What exactly is a DDoS attack?
Musk alleged that X fell victim to a cybersecurity attack at the start of the livestream.
Lisa Plaggemier, executive director of The National Cybersecurity Alliance tells Entrepreneur that a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack occurs "when multiple compromised systems flood a targeted server with overwhelming traffic, causing it to slow down or crash."
"It's a highly disruptive attack that can paralyze websites, apps, or entire networks, leading to significant downtime and financial loss for businesses," Plaggemier said.
Though it's impossible to confirm whether or not this was what happened on X Monday night, Plaggemier says that a DDoS attack "could certainly cause the type of delay seen in livestream events" by making it difficult for the livestream to maintain a connection.
"High-profile organizations like financial institutions, media companies, and large e-commerce platforms are frequent targets of DDoS attacks," she said. "DDoS attacks have become increasingly common, with thousands occurring daily across the globe. They are one of the most frequently employed tactics by cybercriminals due to their relative simplicity and the widespread damage they can cause."
Technical difficulties continue at X
Although Musk was quick to allege that Monday's debacle was due to bad actors, this isn't the first time X had difficulty with its livestreaming software.
"We're just testing the live video feature so we can see if it works, and we can modify it accordingly," Musk said in May 2023 after first testing the livestream technology following his takeover of the platform formerly known as Twitter in November 2022.
Later that month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis chose to announce his campaign for President during a livestream on X, instead of on traditional television. However, the platform encountered mass technical difficulties when it was delayed by over 20 minutes after 600,000 listeners tuned in at once.
Related: Elon Musk Makes a Case for Tesla in X Livestream with Donald Trump
Then, in September, Musk tried the livestream feature again on a visit to the Eagle Pass at the U.S.—Mexico border. With roughly five million users tuned in, the video froze after four minutes, prompting Musk to reportedly email employees, "Please fix this."
According to X data, Musk and Trump's livestream on Monday had an estimated 73 million views.
