Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was all set to start his 2024 election campaign with Twitter on Wednesday.
Instead of going the traditional route with news channels, Musk and DeSantis collaborated to create what would have been a huge moment for the social media industry. Unfortunately, it was ruined by a technical glitch.
Here’s What Happened
The campaign was supposed to start with a live group chat between Elon Musk, Twitter owners, and DeSantis on Wednesday. However, just a few minutes after the session kicked off at 3 PM, repeated technical glitches started pouring in.
The audio was barely audible, the speech was often distorted and ruined with reverb noises, and sometimes it was dead silent except for a buzz. In short, it was a disaster.
What’s even more unfortunate is that this event could have been a game-changer for DeSantis’ campaign. People seemed genuinely interested in the discussion. In the short time that the live chat was on air, more than 580,000 listeners joined the Twitter Space.
Thankfully, the team quickly set up another Space for the discussion, and by 3:30, they were live again. However, this new session only managed to garner 304,000 listeners, which is approximately half the number of listeners who tuned into the original announcement.
Nevertheless, DeSantis still got to talk about his campaign details and plans even though it was to a much smaller audience.
I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback.Ron DeSantis
Soon after the session, talks about the failed live chat began trending online with hashtags like “DeSaster,” “Failure to launch,” and “Crashed.”
The technical glitch wasn’t really surprising. After Musk took over last year and laid off half the workforce, glitches and crashes have become more and more common.
Musk’s Political Stance & Connection Ron DeSantis
A lot of users might wonder how this tech genius suddenly shifted his focus from technology and innovation to politics. The truth is, Musk has always maintained conservative views with a focus on certain social and cultural issues that have only amplified ever since he took over Twitter.
Musk has always been open about supporting DeSantis.
In fact, he made an explicit statement last year confirming that he plans to support DeSantis in his presidential campaign.
The two also share many common social ideologies. For instance, both of them are against what Musk calls the “Woke Mind Virus.”
They’re going out of their way to break down the system-approved enforcements that have been protecting vulnerable groups like the queer community and black users until now.
It looks like Twitter is shifting from a user-centric social media platform that was open for all into a political hub with an inclination towards Republican views.
If DeSantis does manage to win the election, a lot of Musk’s plans will be easily executed. Clearly, this collaboration has been in the pipeline for long enough.
It’s believed that after this event, Twitter is all set to enter a new era. DeSantis’ announcement wasn’t the only big change.
In a recent turn of events, long-time host Tucker Carlson who was driven out of Fox News, confirmed that his show would be returning again in a new avatar on Twitter.
