Ron DeSantis was purported to take to Twitter Areas right this moment to formally announce his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Sadly for the governor of Florida, it seems Twitter was not ready for the inflow of people that have been ready to hearken to the announcement. Shortly after the House went reside, the printed dropped and DeSantis needed to wait earlier than he might say he was operating to change into the president of america of America.
“We have so many individuals right here that I feel we’re form of melting the servers, which is an effective signal,” mentioned Republican megadonor and Elon Musk confidant David Sacks mentioned throughout a second when the House briefly returned earlier than dropping once more. The announcement ultimately acquired underway after Twitter moved the House to Sacks’ account as a result of Musk’s “account was breaking the system.” Sacks mentioned the House, with greater than 500,000 folks tuned in to hear at one level, was the biggest group that had “ever met on-line,” a claim that was quickly ridiculed.
“When Elon Musk stepped as much as buy Twitter he paid some huge cash for it. And I am positive as a result of he is a great businessman — Elon, I am positive you may find yourself making a living off it — however backside line is you needed to put your cash the place your mouth is,” DeSantis mentioned of Musk’s buy of Twitter after the House lastly acquired underway.
Musk’s resolution to personally give DeSantis a platform ought to put to mattress any questions on his politics. Since his takeover of the platform final October, the billionaire has repeatedly engaged with and enabled fringe far-right voices. Initially of December, Twitter reinstated the account of Andrew Anglin, the creator of the white supremacist web site The Every day Stormer. Earlier than that, Musk elevated conspiracy theories in regards to the assault on Paul Pelosi. Extra lately, he has publicly attacked Anthony Fauci and George Soros. In serving to DeSantis announce his presidential bid, Musk is aligning himself with a politician who has signed legislation that has restricted entry to abortion and banned transition take care of minors.
Earlier than right this moment, Twitter, underneath its earlier management, had by no means so instantly engaged with a presidential candidate. At most, the platform’s user-facing political outreach concerned an election hub that pointed folks to info on find out how to vote and livestreams dedicated to debates between presidential candidates. Now the corporate plans to offer former Fox Information pundit Tucker Carlson a platform.
Throughout Donald Trump’s years as president, the general public acquired used to seeing a US chief use Twitter as a private megaphone. The previous president was banned from the web site in 2021 within the aftermath of the January sixth US Capitol riot. Final November, Musk appeared to make the choice to reinstate Trump’s account on the outcomes of a Twitter ballot. The corporate reinstated Trump’s account on November 19th, 2022, however even with some tried public coaxing from Musk, the previous president has not tweeted since earlier than his ban.
The actual fact Twitter bumped into technical difficulties ought to come as no shock. Underneath Musk’s management, the corporate has reduce nearly all of the workforce it had in place underneath former CEO Parag Agrawal, together with a lot of the workforce answerable for its critical infrastructure.
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