Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey meets with President Trump

Twitter says Dorsey discussed the "health of the public conversation ahead of the 2020 US elections."

Queenie Wong Former Senior Writer

Queenie Wong was a senior writer for CNET News, focusing on social media companies including Facebook's parent company Meta, Twitter and TikTok. Before joining CNET, she worked for The Mercury News in San Jose and the Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon. A native of Southern California, she took her first journalism class in middle school.

Expertise I've been writing about social media since 2015 but have previously covered politics, crime and education. I also have a degree in studio art. Credentials

2022 Eddie award for consumer analysis

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Queenie Wong

April 23, 2019 4:01 p.m. PT

2 min read

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Testifies To House Hearing On Company's Transparency and Accountability — Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey met with President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

The meeting happened on the same day Trump criticized Twitter, accusing the social media company of being "very discriminatory," playing "political games" and not treating him "well as a Republican." Twitter has denied suppressing conservative speech in the past.

“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 list. Big complaints from many people. Different names-over 100 M.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019

.....But should be much higher than that if Twitter wasn’t playing their political games. No wonder Congress wants to get involved - and they should. Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2019

Hours after lashing out at Twitter, Trump tweeted about the meeting and said he's looking forward to "keeping an open dialogue."

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

Motherboard, which first reported about the meeting, said Dorsey was invited to the White House for a closed-door, 30-minute meeting.

A Twitter spokesperson said Dorsey had a "constructive meeting" with the president and confirmed the tech mogul was invited.

"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 spokesperson said.

Twitter didn't respond to questions about whether Dorsey discussed Trump's allegations against the company during the meeting. The Washington Post, citing a person with direct knowledge of the conversation, reported that Trump voiced concerns about losing Twitter followers. Dorsey told the president that some Twitter users, including himself, lost followers after the company cracked down on spam, the Post reported.

The White House confirmed the meeting but provided no further details.

With nearly 60 million followers, Trump is among Twitter's most popular users, but his tweets can also be controversial. Twitter has faced calls to boot Trump off the platform over allegations that he's spreading hate speech or inciting violence. The social network takes into consideration the newsworthiness of Trump's tweets.

Twitter, which reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, plans to add a notice if a tweet violates the company's rules but stays up because it's in the public interest.

Originally published April 23, 2:10 p.m. PT
Update, 2:36 p.m.: Adds more background. Update, 3:31 p.m.: Adds report from The Washington Post. Update, 4:01 p.m. PT: Adds White House confirmation.