Social media is supposed to be one of the major tools for a presidential campaign, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ official announcement for the United States presidency Thursday was not quite the platform-building success he was hoping for.
DeSantis, a Republican, posted a video to Twitter to announce his campaign. Shortly after the video went out, Twitter accounts throughout the United States flagged it directly for violating the platform’s content rules. The rules cited by the tweets suggested the video glorified violence.
DeSantis’ video featured rapid-fire clips of military exercises, public appearances, and news coverage with “America” playing in the background. Several hours later, Twitter users noted that the audio file used in the video appeared to be copyrighted.
Twitter eventually took down the video, and the governor’s staff was quick to point out that the video had decently high figures in terms of views and retweets during its brief time online. Whether or not this incident will have any lasting effect on the campaign is unclear.
