Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement was mired by repeated technical glitches on Twitter on Wednesday evening in a black eye for the social media platform.
The highly-anticipated announcement, set to be made via a conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk and tech entrepreneur David Sacks on Twitter’s “Spaces” feature, was delayed as it appeared the platform was overwhelmed. Twitter’s mobile app repeatedly crashed and users complained that they were unable to hear the broadcast.
Nearly 700,000 users logged in to hear the announcement roughly 20 minutes after it was launched. The event was then abruptly shut down without explanation.
TEAM DESANTIS CAMPAIGN STAFF IS ASSEMBLED — AND IT INCLUDES EX-TRUMP OFFICIALS
“The servers are straining somewhat,” Musk was heard saying at one point.
Twitter users pummeled Musk over the botched rollout, and Democrats were quick to capitalize.
President Biden tweeted out a fundraising page with the caption: “This link works.”
“Failure to launch,” political commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle tweeted. “Trump 2024.”
“This is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to a presidential candidate and it’s not close. Just hold a rally,” David Marcus, another commentator, tweeted.
And the MAGA War Room tweeted an image of the Twitter Spaces with the words “failing to launch…” emblazoned across the top.
“This is aurally amateurish and technically raw. It will be a meme, and RDS’s opponents will make it into a metaphor,” Noah Rothman, a conservative columnist, added. “But if the campaign is competent, more conventional table-setting events will render it a bad memory in short order. Given the foreseeable errors, though, big if.”
This is a developing news story. Please return for updates.