President Trump met with Twitter CEO at the White House
President Donald Trump met with Jack Dorsey, the CEO of his favorite online platform, Twitter, on Tuesday in the Oval Office.
“Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general,” the president said, of course, in a tweet. "Look forward to keeping an open dialogue!"
But just hours before, Trump complained in a series of tweets that Twitter is "discriminatory" and accused the tech giant of playing "political games."
The president has accused social media companies like Twitter of silencing conservatives on their platforms, yet still it appears to remain his favorite way to communicate with the public. From his time as a public citizen to his role in the White House, the president has tweeted or retweeted on the Twitter platform over 40,000 times. In an administration that has not exactly been known for consistent communication, his often-daily tweets have become one of the most reliable ways this White House shares information.
Trump’s tweets range from mundane musings about golf or Fox News to major policy announcements or personnel changes, forcing journalists, politicians, world leaders and even members of his own administration to keep a close eye on whatever pops up from the @realDonaldTrump handle.
Still, Trump threatened during a press conference with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro last month that he wanted to "get to the bottom" of potentially discriminatory practices on Twitter.
"Things are happening, names are taken off, people aren't getting through, you've heard the same complaints and it seems to be if they are conservative, if they're Republicans, if they're in a certain group there's discrimination and big discrimination," Trump said. "I see it absolutely on Twitter and on Facebook which I have also and others."
There has been no evidence of any kind of discriminatory practices, but Trump has balked at lost followers after Twitter did a purge of suspicious accounts. Many of those accounts were used by Russian agents to interfere in the 2016 election, but conservatives have complained that they have mostly targeted right-leaning voices. According to the Washington Post, the president complained about his loss of followers during his sit-down meeting with Dorsey at the White House.
"Jack had a constructive meeting with the President of the United States today at the president's invitation,” Twitter said in a statement. "They discussed Twitter's commitment to protecting the health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis."
This was the first time the Twitter CEO met with Trump at the White House.
