The New Political Media

The political impact of social media is beyond doubt. But whether it will come from new or existing technologies remains to be seen.

In a way, the candidacy announcement by Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor who aims to be the Republican presidential nominee and possibly the president, provided an indication of the future to come, in spite of all the odds.

Not that DeSantis has an assured path to his party’s presidential nomination, despite a campaign fund that has already reached $200 million. In fact, with all the resources supporting him, his chances of success seem, at the very least, limited by the strength of former President Donald Trump, who has become not only his competitor but also an enemy “to the death.”

The interesting, even important, point is that he chose to use Twitter as the platform for his announcement in what is seen as a demonstration of the potential of social media and the new role it is playing in society.

It is true that the launch suffered problems. According to the company, about 500,000 people linked in at one point, and the platform faced difficulties, even crashing.

But in the end, the hour-long dialogue with entrepreneurs Elon Musk, owner of Twitter and the Tesla car company, and David Saks played out, and DeSantis managed to make his announcement.

Still, much of the political press and the Florida governor’s perceived opponents focused on Twitter’s technical problems. After all, DeSantis prides himself on being an efficient politician, and social media is presented as an alternative to traditional media, be it print, radio or television.

Fox Broadcasting Company, until now the leading face of conservative media in the U.S., featured its own interview with DeSantis on Wednesday night and announced it on Twitter, with the promise that “Fox is not going down.”*

It is also a clash between old and new media and the entrepreneurs: Fox is owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch, a nonagenarian who owns an empire that includes newspapers in Australia, Britain and the U.S. Meanwhile, Twitter was acquired in October by Musk, an entrepreneur described as audacious, who launched the electric car company Tesla, a space adventure.

His aim is to turn Twitter into more than just a 240-character platform, and soon it will be able — or so he says — to be used for voice and video calls. And apparently more: Despite its problems, the conversation with DeSantis lasted an hour.

As of March of this year, Twitter had just over 396 million users worldwide, including 73 million in the U.S. (and 12 million in Mexico). Musk hopes to reach more than 930 million by 2030 and eventually turn it into a platform that can be used for entertainment, messaging, sending money or consuming news.

The political impact of social media is beyond doubt. But whether it will come from new or existing technologies remains to be seen.

*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, this quoted passage could not be independently verified.