A social media post by author Stephen King criticizing the technical abilities of X (formerly Twitter) has taken off online.
In the wake of Donald Trump's interview with Elon Musk on X, which was plagued by technical difficulties, the duo's longtime critic, King, lost no time in hitting out at the Tesla CEO and X owner.
"Tech problems with Musk/Trump don't surprise me. Twitter is more f***** up than [Peter O'Toole] on his birthday," the author wrote. At the time of writing, the post has had over 300,000 views.
The post referred to the late English stage actor Peter O'Toole who gained international recognition for playing the titular role in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia and was known for his "hell-raiser" lifestyle.
King has often invoked O'Toole's birthday for his criticisms of Donald Trump.
In January 2021, King wrote in reference to Donald Trump: "The President of the United States is barking mad. I mean more f***** up than Peter O'Toole on his birthday."
Newsweek has reached out to King's representatives by email for comment.
The comment quickly took off online with some social media users arguing that if King was dissatisfied with the platform he should leave.
User @thegeneral_0 wrote: "Then leave...you keep complaining about X but you're still on. Just leave."
"Delete your account. That will help," wrote another user named Michelle Whitzel.
The conversation between Donald Trump and Elon Musk, billed as the "interview of the century", was heavily impacted by technical issues.
Initially, the site showed that the interview was "not available" at the scheduled 8 pm EST. After 40 minutes of users struggling to gain access, the interview eventually began 40 minutes later.
Musk blamed the problems on a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) cyber-attack, though this is yet to be confirmed.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis experienced similar technical glitches when he launched his presidential campaign on the platform in May 2023.
Newsweek has emailed the X press office for comment.
Trump and Musk covered a range of issues in the conversation, from Trump's relationship with Vladimir Putin to his plans to shut down the Department of Education and revert power to the states, should he win the election.
Musk and King have long butted heads over X. King has made a policy of refusing to acknowledge the name change from Twitter to X, which Musk initiated after he bought the social media platform for $44 billion in October 2022.
In July, Musk posted an aerial video of an X-shaped skyscraper. King then reposted the video with the caption: "Twitter. Twitter, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter." The post went viral and has had 11.4 million views, at the time of writing.
Musk responded, commenting "XX" and an emoji of a face blowing a kiss.
A month after Musk's takeover of X, King weighed in on his running of the platform.
"I think Elon Musk is a visionary. Almost single-handedly, he's changed the way Americans think about automobiles," he wrote on X. "I have a Tesla and love it. That said, he's been a terrible fit for Twitter. He appears to be making it up as he goes along."
Musk responded and told King that suggestions were "welcome."
King, who has been a member of the Democratic party since 1970, has long used social media to take aim at the GOP and Donald Trump.
In a recent X post responding to Trump's claim that the Kamala Harris campaign fabricated crowd photos using artificial intelligence, King wrote: "Is this real? If it is, Trump has really lost it."
In the past, King has also branded Trump "dangerous" and compared him to "a kid doing a tantrum."
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