Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) took to the Twittersphere at 6 p.m. Florida time to announce his 2024 presidential campaign—only to be hampered by repeated technical difficulties. The Twitter Space, as the site’s live audio streaming platform is known, was quickly thrown into chaos as the social media site’s servers were apparently overloaded by the glut of listeners flooding in, quickly rising to an audience of more than half a million people. Twitter owner Elon Musk and moderator David Sacks could be heard struggling to vamp over the technical issues, which included audio delays, an echo effect, and repeated crashes. “We have so many people here we’re starting to melt the server, which I think is a good thing,” Sacks said at one point. The Space, hosted by Musk’s Twitter account, was eventually listed as “over,” and the group moved over to Sacks’ account to try again. There, Sacks marveled at DeSantis’ ability to gather “the largest online group ever,” despite the fact that the relaunched audio platform had amassed just under 100,000 listeners by that point.
Ron DeSantis' Twitter Spaces campaign launch has, so far, featured:
-Several minutes of silence -Random throat clearing -Muffled commentary from Elon Musk about why Spaces isn't working -Hosts, including DeSantis disappearing
