It was a bad, terrible, bad, bad day for Twitter CEO Elon Musk.
On Wednesday, Mr. Musk’s much-anticipated announcement on Twitter’s “Space” feature that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will officially enter the Republican presidential race was a fiasco for the Tesla mogul.
Twitter’s mobile app crashed repeatedly, with users complaining they couldn’t hear the broadcast. The issue came after a long delay as the platform was completely overwhelmed by perhaps the biggest Twitter event since Musk acquired the social media platform last year.
Despite Musk’s staggering 140.8 million Twitter followers, fewer than 300,000 people were able to join DeSantis’ chat. The Twitter space had 900,000 concurrent viewers at one point, according to screenshots from the space, but more than two-thirds were bailed out due to technical issues by the time DeSantis was able to get started, or we can hear. I didn’t.
Twitter Space Crashes Repeatedly During DESANTIS 2024 Announcement
Elon Musk has 140.8 million Twitter followers, but less than 300,000 of them were able to hear Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ highly publicized announcement. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
“It’s like melting down a server,” said entrepreneur David Sachs, who was at the event at one point.
“The servers are under some load,” Musk could be heard saying.
The failed event was seen as a foe to Mr. Musk as he sought to expand Twitter’s capabilities. The small audience was ridiculed throughout the media world, and people took to Twitter to denounce the platform.
Technology journalist Kara Swisher tweeted, “For anyone who’s used the Twitter space for events like this, this tech disruption came as no surprise.”
ABC’s Jonathan Karl said the event was “ridden with technical problems”, noting that only a “small fraction” of Musk’s followers on the platform were able to make it through.
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Twitter CEO Elon Musk had a rough night after Ron DeSantis’ “Spaces” feature for his campaign announcement was plagued with technical issues. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto, CARINA JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images (photo illustration))
CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla wrote, “The Twitter space turned out not to be the best place to make a big announcement.”
MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan said it felt “a bit strange that there is no video for an event this big,” while progressive Lindsay Boylan said, “Twitter space, presidential season fire festival Everyone wants to join now,” he joked.
The event resulted in random throat clearing and silence, creating confusion among the audience.
Fox News Digital emailed for comment, and Twitter responded with its customary poop emoji.
DeSantis, who is considered Trump’s greatest threat among Republican presidential candidates, appeared on Fox News Tonight shortly after the Twitter event and gave an extended interview.
Mr. DeSantis has repeatedly called Florida a place where he “wakes up and dies,” and said as president he would continue to stand firm against the culture wars.
“The Woke Mind Virus is basically a form of cultural Marxism. Ultimately, it is an attack on truth. I think we have no choice but to do it,” he said Wednesday on Fox News Tonight.
Fox News’ Thomas Katenacci, Ashley Carnahan and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
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