Trump meets with Twitter boss Jack Dorsey in the White House

Twitter’s CEO has met with Donald Trump hours after he again lashed out at the platform.

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey meets with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Picture: Donald Trump’s Twitter account

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and a team of his executives have met with US President Donald Trump, in a 30 minute closed-door conversation to discuss “the world of social media in general,” according to the president.

President Trump shared a picture on Twitter of the surprise meeting that showed CEO Jack Dorsey and other Twitter executives, including the company’s VP of public policy Colin Crowell and public policy manager Lauren Culbertson, in the Oval Office.

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!,”

Hours earlier, the president had called Twitter — on its own platform — “very discriminatory” and declared “they don’t treat me well as a Republican.”

He accused the company of “playing political games” and said Congress needed to “get involved.”

In a statement following the meeting, a Twitter spokesman said “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 US elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis.”

The Washington Post, citing an unnamed source, said that a “significant portion” of the meeting was dedicated to talking about president’s belief that Twitter has deliberately removed a number of his followers.

Thank you for the time. Twitter is here to serve the entire public conversation, and we intend to make it healthier and more civil. Thanks for the discussion about that.

— jack (@jack) April 23, 2019

Twitter is often criticised by both sides of the political spectrum for how it handles President Trump, and free speech.

In an internal email flagging the meeting to Twitter employees, later leaked to tech news websites, Mr Dorsey said he believed conversations with President Trump “bridges gaps and drives towards solutions.”

“I have met with every world leader who has extended an invitation to me, and I believe the discussions have been productive, and the outcomes meaningful,” Mr Dorsey wrote in the email.

“Some of you will be very supportive of our meeting [with] the president, and some of you might feel we shouldn’t take this meeting at all. In the end, I believe it’s important to meet heads of state in order to listen, share our principles and our ideas.”

President Trump has said repeatedly during his term that Republicans “have to do something” to combat the platform’s perceived anti-conservative bias.

“I have very many, millions of followers on Twitter and it’s different than it used to be. Things are happening. Names are taken off. People aren’t getting through,” he said at a press conference last month.

“Something’s happening with those groups of folks that are running Facebook and Google and Twitter and I do think we need to get to the bottom of it. It’s very fair. It’s collusive and it’s very, very fair to say that we have to do something about it.”

The meeting came as Twitter reported record daily users and rising profit overnight, driving shares higher as the results signalled that recent product tweaks are stabilising the business.

Shares in Twitter rose 16 per cent amid news of the company’s improved performance, including better-than-expected revenue growth.

The results indicate that Jack Dorsey’s long-promised plans to address harassment on the platform are paying off, and that its niche community of social-media users can sustain a profitable business.