A live Twitter stream with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis crashed , as hundreds of thousands of users logged in to hear DeSantis announce his candidacy for U.S. President, and the site crashed.
The live broadcast was held on Twitter Spaces and was hosted by social network owner Elon Musk and entrepreneur David Sacks. More than 500,000 Twitter users joined the stream, which was eventually dropped due to missing audio and technical glitches for half an hour.
The broadcast was then resumed. When the event was relaunched using Sax's account, only about 250,000 users ended up listening to it. After the restart, DeSantis' statement about his candidacy in the elections still sounded.
Joe Biden did not miss the opportunity to play a prank on a potential contender in the election: he posted a link to collect donations for his campaign, signing it "This link works" (as opposed to broadcast on Spaces).
Potential campaign sponsors for DeSantis, who were waiting for his announcement to begin in the Four Seasons conference room, advised Musk to increase staff to avoid such disruptions (a nod to mass layoffs on Twitter).
DeSantis has served as governor of Florida since 2019. He is known for his conservative views and radical bills. For example, his campaign included supporting a law allowing people with concealed carry permits to carry weapons openly. He is a staunch Trumpist and has been a sharp critic of the immigration policies of Joe Biden and Barack Obama. Opposes abortion, is a supporter of the death penalty. In 2023, he banned children in Florida from "using non-biological pronouns," getting gender-supportive therapy, and attending drag shows. In addition, DeSantis banned the teaching of sex education to students up to 8th grade.
In 2022, DeSantis called the war in Ukraine a "territorial dispute." After a wave of criticism, he changed his rhetoric and began to call Vladimir Putin a war criminal.