Trump apparently summoned Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to the Oval Office to complain about losing Twitter followers

(Image credit: David Becker/Getty Images)

published 24 April 2019

Twitter and the White House were both mum about President Trump's meeting with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey before it happened on Tuesday afternoon, and the participants were only slightly more forthcoming afterward. Trump — who requested the meeting — tweeted a photo of the Oval Office gathering, Dorsey responded by thanking Trump for discussing ways to make Twitter "healthier and more more civil," and Twitter said the meeting centered on "protecting the health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis."

In fact, "a significant portion of the meeting focused on Trump's concerns that Twitter quietly, and deliberately, has limited or removed some of his followers," The Washington Post reports, citing a person with direct knowledge of the conversation. "Trump said he had heard from fellow conservatives who had lost followers for unclear reasons as well."

Dorsey explained to Trump that a user's follower count fluctuates as Twitter removes bots and fraudulent spam accounts, "noting even he had lost followers as part of Twitter's work to enforce its policies," the Post reports. Trump isn't the only conservative who has complained that Twitter secretly undermines their tweets — though he is one of the few users Twitter won't touch for violating the site's terms of service — but Twitter insists it is a politics-neutral platform, and the site's "heightened crackdown against spam," the Post notes, "long has affected both liberals and conservatives on the site."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.