A highly anticipated livestream conversation between former US President Donald Trump and X owner Elon Musk was severely disrupted by a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on Monday night. The incident forced Musk to scale down the live audience and delay the interview.

“Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later,” Musk said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Users attempting to access the livestream encountered numerous issues. Within minutes of the scheduled 8 p.m. ET start time, terms like “crashed,” “unable,” and “#TwitterBlackout” were trending on the platform. Desktop users were greeted with a “this space is not available” message, while mobile app users faced a motionless, greyed-out screen.

This technical failure echoes previous difficulties X has faced during high-profile broadcast events. Last year, a “Spaces” event launching Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid was marred by bugs and audio problems, which Musk attributed to an overloaded server.

Anticipating potential issues, Musk had conducted “streaming tests” on Sunday night to prepare X’s systems for the event.

The interview comes at a significant time, following Musk’s recent endorsement of Trump’s candidacy after an alleged assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania. This marks a departure from the typically neutral stance maintained by social media platform leaders.

Trump’s account on X, suspended after the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill attack, was reinstated under Musk’s ownership.

Trump’s planned talk with Musk comes after Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

(Inputs from ANI)