Twitter Boss Meets President Trump In Oval Office
Donald Trump asks Jack Dorsey about fluctuations in follower numbers, after accusing platform of discrimination
US President Donald Trump has had a face to face meeting with the boss of his favourite social networking platform.
The meeting between the two men could have potentially been awkward for a number of reasons. Earlier in the week President Trump had hit out at the platform claiming it was discriminating against him and other republicans after the number of his followers fluctuated.
And last week Twitter co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey said he wanted to encourage a productive, healthy conversation on the platform. The same platform that President Trump repeatedly uses to attack and criticise his opponents.
Trump discrimination?
The meeting between the two took place in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Dorsey had reportedly hoped to talk about Twitter’s attempts to help fix the opioid epidemic that is sweeping the United States.
But Trump decided to question Dorsey about why the number of his followers (Trump has 60 million) keeps changing.
“The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump.” @MariaBartiromo So true, but they don’t treat me well as a Republican,” the President tweeted earlier this week. “Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people.”
Twitter however had a different version of the meeting, saying the two men spoke about “protecting the health of the public conversation” ahead of the US 2020 general election.
Great meeting
President Trump did later tweet a picture of Dorsey and him in the Oval Office and called it a “great meeting”.
“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!” the President tweeted.
Dorsey thanked the president in a reply to his tweet.
“Twitter is here to serve the entire public conversation, and we intend to make it healthier and more civil,” the Twitter CEO wrote.
Trump may quite see Twitter in the same light, as he often uses the microblogging platform to launch scathing attacks on politicians, journalists, and foreign nations.
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