Ron DeSantis Pushed Elon Musk's Twitter to Its Breaking Point

Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor of Florida, surely hoped to trend on Twitter after announcing his run for president in an audio stream on the platform today. He likely did not want to see the top hashtag be #DeSaster.

Just minutes after DeSantis joined the platform's owner Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces, and before the politician could even speak, Musk could be heard saying, "The servers are straining somewhat.” Then the stream abruptly ended, apparently overwhelmed by some 667,000 listeners, a paltry number compared to the streams on other platforms routinely watched by millions. 

DeSantis’ appearance was a gamble on a novel presidential campaign tactic and a platform not known for its mass appeal to US voters. It ended up pushing Twitter to breaking point both technically and philosophically.

The company, which has a fifth of the staff it had when Musk acquired Twitter last year, eventually restarted ...