Why did Elon Musk's Twitter Spaces fail during major announcement? Report reveals extreme staff shortage

Elon Musk recently hosted a Twitter Spaces episode announcing a new US Presidential candidate, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. However, it didn't really go all that well thanks to various technical glitches with Twitter Spaces. There were no concrete reasons offered by either Musk or DeSantis' team. A new report now sheds light on the possible reason why Twitter Spaces failed miserably on such a momentous occasion. 

A report by Platformer revealed the error happened primarily due to extremely short staffing levels. The Twitter Spaces team used to employ up to 100 people at its peak. However, the report claims that the number shrunk to just three.

Twitter Spaces was introduced in 2021, in response to the then-popular application Clubhouse. However, after numerous waves of layoffs, Musk seems to have fired some essential personnel from his team leading to not one, but many failed attempts at Twitter Spaces. 

DeSantis' team tried to give the entire episode a positive spin by introducing merch saying: 'DeSantis Breaks Systems'. The campaign manager Generra Peck also tweeted about the episode, attributing the debacle to overcrowding on Twitter Spaces. 

Also read: Elon Musk says other tech companies should lay off employees like he did at Twitter

In the tweet, she said, "Just got off the phone with @elonmusk + @DavidSacks -- heard behind the scenes details from Twitter as they handled the nearly 1 million people trying to get into the Spaces room." 

Peck further added, "They had more than 700k in the room to start with hundreds of thousands trying to get in...had to relocate the room."

Also read: Twitter crashes as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launches 2024 US presidential bid

Twitter Layoffs

Twitter Layoffs began soon after Musk took over the company late last year. After multiple rounds of layoffs and resignations, the staff at the micro-blogging website was streched thin. Musk even claimed that the company is only left with around 1,500 employees, almost 80 per cent lesser than the strength when Musk took over Twitter. 

Earlier this week, during an interaction with a WSJ reporter, Musk suggested that tech companies in Silicon Valley should conduct many more layoffs. However, episodes like the recent Twitter Spaces with Ron DeSantis might give Musk a good reason to start hiring again.