Twitter was uninvited from a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump and other major tech executives Wednesday as payback for its refusal to make a custom emoji to accompany the #CrookedHillary hashtag on their website, a person with knowledge of the situation told Politico. Twitter formats certain hashtags so that an image appears alongside the text when it is used, such as rings for the Olympics or a swirl for the release of the Disney film Moana. The Trump campaign had wanted to deploy an emoji of "small bags of money being given away or stolen" for #CrookedHillary, Politico writes, but Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reportedly personally intervened in the $5 million deal.
"We told them it was B.S. and what they were doing with a public platform was incredibly reckless and dangerous," said Gary Coby, the Trump campaign's digital advertising and fundraising director.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Chinese AI chatbot's rise slams US tech stocksSpeed Read The sudden popularity of a new AI chatbot from Chinese startup DeepSeek has sent U.S. tech stocks tumbling
-
US port strike averted with tentative labor dealSpeed Read The strike could have shut down major ports from Texas to Maine
-
Biden expected to block Japanese bid for US SteelSpeed Read The president is blocking the $14 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, citing national security concerns
-
Judges block $25B Kroger-Albertsons mergerSpeed Read The proposed merger between the supermarket giants was stalled when judges overseeing two separate cases blocked the deal
-
Rupert Murdoch loses 'Succession' court battleSpeed Read Murdoch wanted to give full control of his empire to son Lachlan, ensuring Fox News' right-wing editorial slant
-
Bitcoin surges above $100k in post-election rallySpeed Read Investors are betting that the incoming Trump administration will embrace crypto
-
Enron mystery: 'sick joke' or serious revival?Speed Read 23 years after its bankruptcy filing, the Texas energy firm has announced its resurrection
-
US charges Indian tycoon with bribery, fraudSpeed Read Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted by US prosecutors for his role in a $265 million scheme to secure solar energy deals
