Recap: Donald Trump seems to have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. The president constantly tweets to his 60 million followers and often uses the microblogging site to announce government policies, but he has repeatedly accused it of political bias. Yesterday, Trump and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had a meeting to discuss his grievances and social media in general.
Before the meeting took place, Trump tweeted that Twitter doesn't treat him well as a Republican. "Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people," he wrote, before accusing the site of "political games."
Later, Trump tweeted a picture of the meeting, which was also attended by White House director of social media Dan Scavino and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter's head of legal, policy, and trust & safety.
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
"Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue!" wrote the president.
A Twitter spokesperson offered more information on which topics were discussed: "Jack had a constructive meeting with the President of the United States today at the president's invitation. 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."
Back in October, Trump accused Twitter of removing many of his followers. The Washington Post claims a "significant portion" of the meeting revolved around this accusation, which Twitter says can happen as it deletes spam accounts.
Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join - they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all. A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?
--- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
In 2016, Twitter said it would ban Donald Trump if he violated the site's rules prohibiting violent threats, harassment, and hateful conduct. It later backtracked, saying it wouldn't remove these tweets because they are newsworthy.