Elon Musk suffered another embarrassing blunder in the wake of Ron Desantis’ disastrous Twitter Spaces campaign launch, when his attempt to boast of the Florida governor’s “record” in fundraising was swiftly corrected by his own platform .
The billionaire tried to hit back at the “sound” after the fiasco, which saw DeSantis’ widely anticipated announcement interrupted by numerous technical glitches.
‘But what is no noise? Set a record for fundraising!’ Musk tweeted, citing the 2024 hopeful’s $8.2 million in the first 24 hours of his candidacy.
The tweet, which had more than 21 million views, was quickly corrected by a comment from the community, which pointed out that the actual record was set at $25 million by Donald Trump the day after he announced his failed 2019 reelection bid.
Elon Musk hit back at the ‘noise’ surrounding his botched hosting of Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch
The billionaire Twitter owner tried to brag about DeSantis’ ‘record’ fundraising numbers – a claim later corrected by a community note
The community’s humiliating post further stated that half of DeSantis’ donations came from a fundraiser that began before his failed Spaces announcement.
Community Notes is a feature of Twitter that attempts to add context to posts and correct misinformation.
Twitter says it has no control over the writing, rating or moderation of the notes, with the corrections appearing when deemed helpful by other users.
DeSantis has been widely mocked for his unorthodox decision to announce his White House run on Twitter Spaces in favor of a traditional gathering.
However, a decimated workforce and shrinking server capacity were blamed for the debacle after a large number of people flooded the platform to tune in.
Twitter Spaces’ workforce has been cut from 100 to just three in recent months, with company engineers admitting they were “not ready” for the onslaught of users.
More than 500,000 people waited more than 20 minutes for the event to start, and people who could join were often kicked out.
The first audio live stream stopped before DeSantis could get his news out. The second fared slightly better, attracting about 700,000 listeners at its peak.
DeSantis is seen as Trump’s main competitor. Pictured: Trump shakes hands with DeSantis as Florida first lady Casey DeSantis watches at a rally in Estero, Florida on Oct. 31, 2018
A hot-mic discussion between Musk and Spaces moderator David Sacks was also picked up at the event, where they said the issues were due to “server tension” and that users were “melting the servers.”
The duo claimed it was the biggest event ever hosted online – another claim that was disputed, as many pointed out that larger events had been held without a hitch.
In particular, the governor of Florida was unable to speak for the first half hour after his launch due to the many disturbances.
When he was finally able to get started, he was heard in a loose conversation with Musk touting his record on COVID and veiled lashes at Donald Trump.
He also vowed to undo “everything” President Biden had done to America’s southern border.
“I am running for President of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” DeSantis said. “But we know that our country is moving in the wrong direction. We see it with our own eyes. And we feel it in our bones.’
DeSantis would later claim his announcement “broke the internet” as he tried to avert the chaotic start.
Though the delivery was a joke and seemed to downplay the confused announcement, DeSantis didn’t smile — though he did manage to grimace briefly as he finished his speech.
DeSantis poses with his family, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis and their three children, Madison, 5, Mason, 4, and Mamie, 2
Foad Dabiri resigned as Twitter’s chief technical officer after the disastrous launch
The humiliation of DeSantis’ campaign announcement was compounded when Twitter’s head of engineering, Foad Dabiri, announced his resignation after the event.
He tweeted, “After nearly four incredible years with Twitter, I decided yesterday to leave the nest.
“The combination of the fantastic community, the impact it has and the limitless potential sets Twitter apart.”
He admitted that Musk’s purchase of Twitter in October had made the job “challenging,” with a lot of “outside noise,” but put a positive spin on the situation, saying he learned a lot from the experience.