- Dictator praise and a technical glitch: this is how Musk's Trump interview went
Donald Trump conducted a highly anticipated interview with billionaire and entrepreneur Elon Musk on his social media platform X on Monday evening. The conversation, which was watched by over 1.3 million people at its peak according to X, saw the Republican presidential candidate discuss the attack on him and the war in Ukraine. He also criticized the current US government. The event was delayed by over 40 minutes due to technical issues preventing many users from accessing the livestream.
Musk Praises Trump, Trump Praises Putin
At the beginning of the conversation, Musk praised the former president for his courage during the assassination attempt in July, during which Trump was struck by a bullet on the ear. The Tesla CEO, who had expressed his support for Trump after this incident, praised the former president several times for his resilience and bravery. Trump announced that he would return to a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the site of the attack, in October.
Later, Trump made unfounded claims, including that Russia would not have attacked Ukraine if he were still president. He praised authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During the conversation, Trump expressed his displeasure that Vice President Kamala Harris would be the Democratic candidate for the presidential election in November instead of President Joe Biden. He incorrectly referred to this as a "coup" and claimed that Harris had not given an interview since the beginning of this "deception." Trump had previously overtaken Biden in many polls in the crucial swing states that will decide the election on November 5, but he is now trailing Harris in some of these states.
Interview Begins with Problems
Technical difficulties delayed the start of the interview, which Musk attributed to a suspected Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. "It appears there is a massive DDoS attack on X," Musk wrote on X. DDoS attacks are cyberattacks aimed at overwhelming servers. However, such an attack has not been confirmed yet.
Before the interview, the European Commission had warned Musk about violations of the European law against hate speech and incitement to violence online. The rules of the Digital Services Act (DSA) also applied to Musk himself as a user with 190 million followers, stressed EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton in a letter to Musk. Breton explicitly referred to the recent riots in the UK, during which Musk had given reach to posts from far-right extremists.
Breton stressed that posts on X were also accessible to users in the EU. Therefore, they were monitoring the risks associated with the spread of posts that "promote violence, hate, or racism." He also referred to the connection with political or societal events around the world, "including debates and interviews in the context of elections."
- Despite the European Commission's warning about potential violations of hate speech laws, Elon Musk proceeded with the interview, featuring Donald Trump.
- The European Union expressed concern over Musk's platform, X, allowing unchecked content, including Trump's praises of authoritarian leaders like Putin and Harris's "coup" accusations.
