Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida officially launched his presidential campaign on Wednesday in a Twitter space alongside Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter. Up to 600,000 users virtually attended the event, although it was plagued by technical difficulties, including audio feedback and server overload. DeSantis initially struggled to connect to Musk’s Twitter space, but eventually moved to a different one initiated by moderator David Sacks.
Sacks, a venture capitalist and former PayPal product manager, spoke of “melting the internet” because of the high number of viewers. Musk, one of the few who could speak in the Twitter space, also cited server overload as the cause of the technical difficulties. After around 25 minutes of delays, DeSantis was finally able to deliver his speech.
Musk’s Twitter has become a significant platform for Republicans to share their views, as they believe other social media platforms are censoring conservative opinions. However, Twitter has emerged as a largely uncensored platform since Musk took over. Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson, known for his right-wing extremist views, was recently fired but has since begun broadcasting on Twitter.
Musk has stated that, for the time being, he does not intend to directly endorse any candidate in the US presidential election.
