The president met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey yesterday after ranting about the company on Twitter earlier that morning, reports the Washington Post. Trump had taken to the platform earlier in the day to accuse Twitter of not treating him well “as a Republican” and making references to his number of followers.
“The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump.” @MariaBartiromo So true, but they don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people. Different names-over 100 M…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019
…..But should be much higher than that if Twitter wasn’t playing their political games. No wonder Congress wants to get involved – and they should. Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019
The Post says that when Trump met with Dorsey in the White House that afternoon, a “significant portion” of the conversation centered around Trump complaining about his number of Twitter followers. Per the Post:
A significant portion of the meeting focused on Trump’s concerns that Twitter quietly, and deliberately, had removed some of his followers, according to a person with direct knowledge of the conversation who requested anonymity because it was private. Trump said he had heard from fellow conservatives who had lost followers as well.
The Post reports that Dorsey explained to the president that users can remove followers as Twitter ramps up efforts to remove spam and bot accounts from the platform. Dorsey even stressed that he himself had “lost followers as part of Twitter’s work to enforce its policies.”
In a statement, Twitter said the meeting was initiated by the president and focused on “protecting the health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis.” As for the president, after the meeting ended, he tweeted a photo of the event saying, “Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general.”
Great meeting this afternoon at the @WhiteHouse with @Jack from @Twitter. Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue! pic.twitter.com/QnZi579eFb
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019
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