By Makena Kelly , a reporter who covers the politics and power influencing the tech industry. Before joining The Verge in 2018, she covered Congres

Elon Musk fails to launch Ron DeSantis in disastrous Twitter Space

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2023-05-25 15:30:11

By Makena Kelly , a reporter who covers the politics and power influencing the tech industry. Before joining The Verge in 2018, she covered Congress and breaking news.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 presidential campaign to screeching audio feedback and technical difficulties in a Twitter Space with Elon Musk on Wednesday.

DeSantis eventually did launch his campaign, but the event was mired with problems from the very beginning — and DeSantis didn’t manage to use the initial Space hosted by Musk. When moderator David Sacks, a venture capitalist and former PayPal product lead, first unmuted himself to start the talk, the Space was filled with loud, echoing feedback sounds before quickly going silent. The accounts of DeSantis and Sacks popped in and out of the initial room, muting and unmuting themselves before leaving entirely.

As of publication, it’s not entirely clear what went wrong, but Musk (one of the only people to actually speak in the first Space) chalked the problems up to overloaded servers. More than 600,000 users were tuned in a few minutes before the Musk-hosted room ended. For comparison, more than 12 million people showed up to Travis Scott’s Fortnite concert in 2020.