Donald Trump Met With Twitter CEO To Complain About Losing Followers
Donald Trump started his morning on Tuesday attacking Twitter and complaining that the social media platform was unfairly removing his followers. By the end of his work day, he was meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to air out his complaints in person, according to The Washington Post.
The president’s main concern seems to have been the size of his Twitter following, according to a source familiar with the meeting. Apparently, Trump spent a large portion of the time in the meeting complaining that he had lost followers – a move that he thought was deliberately done to harm conservative voices on the social media network.
“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,” the Post reported.
“Trump said he had heard from fellow conservatives who had lost followers as well.”
The complaint is a familiar one for conservatives who claim – without much evidence – that their accounts unfairly lose followers more than accounts owned by more liberal users.
Twitter removes accounts regularly when they are found to be troll, bot, or spam accounts. According to the post, Trump lost 300,000 followers in a recent account sweep, and 5,000 under another that just took place to remove accounts spreading anti-Mueller investigation rhetoric.
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
Trump noted his concerns on Twitter this morning.
“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 the list. Big complaints from many people,” Trump tweeted.
He added that he believes he should have over 100 million followers, rather than the 59.9 million that he currently has, if not for the unfair treatment from Twitter. He then urged Congress to get involved in the situation.
Trump frequently inflates the number of followers that he has on social media. He has been known to claim that he has over 150 million followers across all of his social media accounts. The Post found that number to be closer to 93 million.
Part of Trump’s concern may be that former President Obama has nearly twice as many Twitter followers as Trump does. He also lost 2.3 million followers in the social media platform’s largest purge. But Trump also feels that Twitter is an important platform for him because he thinks it allows him to speak to his followers without the filter of the media.
