The U.S President Donald Trump met with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in the Oval Office just hours after launching an attack on the social media platform. Trump claimed earlier in the day via Twitter that the social media platform doesn’t treat him well due to he is a Republican. He said that his follower count is artificially depressed by the company. He didn’t provide any evidence of this bias. Trump tweeted after his meeting with Twitter CEO, “Great meeting this afternoon at the White House with Dorsey from Twitter. Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue”!
It is noteworthy that Twitter had deactivated roughly 5,000 pro-Trump bots on the platform that pushed out disinformation last week alongside the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s influence in the 2016 election. That report focused heavily on Trump and his attempts to stop the investigation. It was branded as Russia-gate Hoax by those bots and Twitter indicated that they violated the platform’s terms of service. A spokesperson for the company informed Ars Technica, “We suspended a network of accounts and others associated with it for engaging in platform manipulation a violation of the Twitter Rules”.
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
Before the meeting of Twitter CEO with the president, Dorsey forwarded a letter to his employees explaining his reasons for meeting with Trump. Dorsey wrote to staff, “Some of you will be very supportive of our meeting the president, and some of you might feel we shouldn’t take this meeting at all. I believe it’s important to meet heads of state in order to listen, share our principles and our ideas”. He said on Twitter, “They don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory and hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off the list. Big complaints from many people”. Trump also blamed U.S Congress of allowing Twitter to operate without oversight due to the bias.