Twitter to Continue Experimenting Spaces for Political Forums, Following DeSantis' Campaign Fiasco

Despite the technical difficulties that happened on its previous forums, Twitter stated that it will keep experimenting with its audio platform feature Spaces to give political candidates a chance to connect with their audience.

Experimenting with Spaces for Political Forums

Investor David Sacks revealed that Twitter will keep using Spaces for political forums as a way for candidates to connect with an audience, as per Bloomberg's report. Sacks moderated the just-completed discussion between Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for his 2024 Presidential Campaign.

"If your viewers go to Twitter now and go listen to the recording, I think they're going to wonder what all the fuss was about. Once we got started in a room on my account, we worked up perfectly," he stated. Along with Sacks, the whole team of Twitter wants the platform to become an open channel and a town hall for future candidates to use for their campaigns.

Sacks is one of the investors who provided funding for the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last November 2022, a trusted confidant during the ownership transition, and a close friend of Musk, having worked with him as an executive during their early days of PayPal. Despite this, Sacks denied having an official role in Twitter.

Aside from political forums, Twitter Spaces was also used on announcements for his other businesses. Musk and Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley announced their partnership for offering EV owners their Tesla Superchargers. Unlike what happened to DeSantis' forum, this came off without technical difficulties.

DeSantis' 2024 Presidential Campaign

During his interview, Sacks acknowledged DeSantis' announcement on Spaces experienced difficulties but said that it went well after they switched from Musk's account to his own. The New York Times reported that this was supposed to be a triumphant moment for Musk, but instead, the event experienced several glitches.

More than 500,000 people attended the forum and waited for more than 20 minutes for the event to start. Some people were trying to join but were frequently kicked out. Both DeSantis and Musk made a joke about "breaking the internet", which proves that political forums on Twitter Spaces might work in the future.

This malfunction was mocked by people on the internet as Sacks failed to ask and challenge DeSantis on certain key points to get to know him by the people listening on the forum. This includes his fight with the Walt Disney Co. and constraints on what schools teach on race or sexuality.

As the moderator for the forum, Fortune reported that Sacks blamed the time limit for not being able to bring up controversial views of DeSantis to the forum, "We couldn't cover every single issue in this town hall. We covered so many issues, and it still feels like we are scratching the surface. I think there will be other opportunities for the candidate to address to that," he stated.