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Trump and Musk's conversation exposed

2024-08-13

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source:Securities Times

At 8 p.m. Eastern Time on August 12, former U.S. President Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk had a conversation on the social platform X.

During this highly anticipated conversation, many users encountered difficulties when trying to access the X platform due to technical problems. Musk said: "The X platform seems to have been hit by a large-scale DDOS network attack, and we are working hard to stop it. In the worst case, we will continue the interview with Trump with only a small live audience and release the content of the conversation later."

In addition, on the eve of Trump's interview with Musk through the X platform, the EU sent Musk a warning letter, reminding him that the X platform must comply with the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) to prevent the spread of "harmful content". EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton pointed out that the law requires social media platforms to take measures to prevent harmful content from being amplified in major events such as live broadcasts, which may have an adverse impact on citizens' speech and public safety. Musk and Linda Iaccarino, CEO of X platform, both expressed opposition to this, believing that this move is an infringement on freedom of speech and an attempt to extend European law to American political activities. At the same time, Trump's campaign team also opposed the EU's warning, emphasizing that the EU should not interfere in the US presidential election.

Trump's return to X platform was forced to be delayed

The interaction between Trump and Musk has attracted much attention. Earlier, Musk teased the event in an X post on Sunday: "This is an unscripted interview with no restrictions on the subject, so it should be very interesting!" However, the live broadcast originally scheduled for 8 pm was soon interrupted due to technical failures, and many X platform users posted that they could not log in to the live event. Musk did not expect the sudden technical problems. He said: "X platform has conducted a system test of 8 million simultaneous listeners early Monday to prevent any technical errors and ensure that X's live broadcast function can handle the event."

After the user reported the problem, Musk immediately said: "X seems to have been hit by a large-scale DDOS network attack, and we are working hard to stop it. The live interview with Trump will begin at 8:30 pm Eastern Time. We will continue the interview with Trump with only a small number of live listeners and release the conversation later."


(Musk said X was attacked by cyber attacks. Source: Musk X social media)

After a brief delay, Musk's conversation with Trump resumed at 8:30 p.m.

Speaking of his recent plans, Trump said he plans to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, where the city was previously attacked, in October. Trump said: "My next speech in Butler will begin with the words 'As I said...'" And this was the last sentence Trump said before he was shot.

Speaking of economic issues, Trump said that American voters are most concerned about the economy and inflation. He claimed that his government has provided the American people with the largest tax cut in history. At the end of June, Trump said that he supports further reducing the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to 15%. However, according to the analysis of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Trump's tax cuts are the eighth largest tax cuts since 1918 as a percentage of the size of the economy (GDP), and are not the largest tax cuts in US history.

Speaking of Musk, Trump said Musk's electric cars are "very good." The conversation did not end, Trump continued to express his dissatisfaction in various aspects, during which he also criticized the governor of California, and Musk offered his "patient ears."

It is understood that this is also the first time that Trump has returned to the X platform and participated in live interaction in more than a year. The last time Trump was active on X was on August 24, 2023, when he posted a photo of his face after being tried in an Atlanta prison for the Georgia election subversion case.

Earlier on Monday, before the live conversation with Musk, Trump posted on the X platform for the first time in a year and asked netizens, "Is your life better now than when I was president?" He then forwarded a message from X officials to promote his conversation with Musk on the platform on Monday night.


(Source: X)

It is worth mentioning that in addition to his brief return, Trump did not forget to "attack" his rival, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, on the platform. Trump added a text at the end of one of the videos: "Reject San Francisco radical Kamala Harris."

During his conversation with Musk, Trump also slammed Kamala Harris for not giving any lengthy interviews since clinching the Democratic presidential nomination. He said: "It's very sad when you think about someone who does this for a living and can't answer questions or is afraid to be interviewed."

At the same time as this conversation took place, the Harris campaign sent an email to supporters to raise funds with the subject line "Tonight's live broadcast are the two worst people you know." They wrote in the email: "It's not enough that Musk has pledged to donate millions of dollars to help Trump get re-elected. He is using the platform he bought - one of the world's largest social media sites - to spread Trump's crazy and hateful agenda to millions of users."

EU issues warning to Musk

Earlier on Monday, the European Union sent a warning letter to X owner Elon Musk, reminding him of EU rules that ban him from promoting "harmful content" before his interview with former President Trump on the social platform.

In a warning letter sent by EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton to X platform owner Elon Musk, he reminded Musk to pay attention to EU regulations against the dissemination of "harmful content", especially in the upcoming interview with former President Trump. Breton stressed that with a larger audience comes greater responsibility, especially at large events that may amplify harmful content. He reminded Musk that X platform needs to comply with the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), which aims to regulate illegal content and false information on large social media platforms.

Breton also noted that unaddressed harmful content at events, including livestreams, could increase risk to Platform X and negatively impact civic dialogue and public safety. He also mentioned recent violent riots in the UK, suggesting Platform X’s response to such incidents could impact ongoing investigations into its compliance with the DSA.

Musk responded by saying that he had wanted to respond with an emoji from the movie Tropic Thunder, but that he would not do something so rude and irresponsible. Linda Iaccarino, CEO of X Platform, objected to the letter, calling it an unprecedented attempt to extend laws that originally applied in Europe to American political activities. She also pointed out that this approach underestimates the judgment of European citizens and believes that they cannot listen to the conversation and draw their own conclusions.

Trump's campaign also objected to the EU's warning, saying the EU should mind its own business and not try to interfere in the US presidential election. They believe that a victory for President Trump would mean that the US would no longer be exploited because he would use tariffs and renegotiated trade deals wisely to put the US first. They also said that the EU is an enemy of free speech and has no right to direct the US on how to conduct its campaign.