Key Points
- Ahead of his conversation with Trump, Musk said X was under a DDoS attack.
- Musk also received a letter from the EU Commission regarding censoring the interview.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s live conversation on X Space from August 12 broke the Internet in spite of all threats and attacks.
Despite all the inconveniences, Musk announced a few minutes ago via his X account that the combined views of the conversation with Trump and the subsequent discussion by others totaled approximately 1 billion.
According to official data, between 7:47 PM and 10:47 PM ET, Trump’s Space post received 73 million views. During the same period, there were 4 million posts about Musk and Trump’s conversation on X, generating a total of 998 million views.
Combined views of the conversation with @realDonaldTrump and subsequent discussion by other accounts now ~1 billion https://t.co/s8x8QmdmnY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2024
X Hit by DDoS Attack
Ahead of his live conversation with Trump, Musk shared a post via X, explaining that the platform was under a DDoS attack.
He noted that they were working on shutting it down, and in the worst case, the plan was to proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a cybercrime that involves flooding a server with Internet traffic to prevent users from accessing online services and sites.
Technical issues plagued the X Space. Musk and Trump were scheduled to hold at 8 PM ET as various X users complained that they were not able to join.
Musk managed to start the interview after 8:30 PM ET. Musk said at the beginning of the conversation that as this massive attack illustrates, there is a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.
EU Commission Warns Musk
Also, yesterday ahead of the live interview, EU Commissioner Thierry Breton warned Musk via a letter that the live stream with Trump may violate the Digital Services Act, and stated that in case this happens, the EU Commission will not hesitate to use their full toolbox “if needed to protect EU citizens from serious harm.”
Breton said via his X account that “with great audience comes greater responsibility.”
He noted that as there is a risk of amplification of potentially harmful content in the EU in connection with events with major audiences around the world, he sent the letter to Musk.
The tech mogul’s response to the letter came also via X, and he said that he really wanted to respond with a Tropic Thunder meme, but he would never do something so rude and irresponsible.
Then, he proceeded with a brutal meme that read, “Take a big step back and literally f—k your own face.”
Also, X CEO, Linda Yaccariso said that the letter was an unprecedented attempt to stretch a law intended to apply in Europe to political activities in the US, patronizing European citizens as well, “suggesting they are incapable of listening to a conversation and drawing their own conclusions.”
Inflation Issues, Government Spending
During the live conversation, Musk and Trump talked about more significant issues, with the most important being the following:
- Cutting government spending
- Legal immigration
- Deregulation
- High-speed transit
- Nuclear energy
- Sensible approach to climate change
Trump committed to Musk that he would create a “Government Efficiency Commision” led by him to cut the cost and size of the Federal Government.
Trump also mentioned what Javier Milei is doing as Argentina’s president and said that they will have the same things in the US soon.
Also, in contrast to the censorship regimes around the world, Musk told Trump that it’s obvious he is a believer and an advocate of free speech.
He continued and told Trump that during his first time as President, he had been attacked relentlessly every day, often very unfairly with false attacks. But, as Musk said, Trump did not try to shut down the media, nor inhibit their freedom of speech, which says a lot.
August 12 also marked Trump’s return to X after a long hiatus.
