U.S. President Donald Trump met with Twitter Inc Chief Executive Jack Dorsey on Tuesday and spent a significant time questioning him about why he had lost some Twitter followers, a person briefed on the matter said. The meeting, which was organised by the White House last week, came hours after Trump again attacked the social media company over his allegations it is biased against conservatives.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

"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!" Trump tweeted, posting a photo of Dorsey and others with him in the Oval Office.

Dorsey, who had not previously met with Trump, replied in a tweet: "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." The source, who was briefed on the meeting that included Twitter’s general counsel and public policy chief, said Dorsey explained in response to Trump’s concerns about losing followers that the company was working to remove fraudulent and spam accounts and that many famous people, including Dorsey himself, had lost followers as a result.

Watch Zee Business Live here:

Shares in Twitter jumped 13 percent on Tuesday after it reported quarterly revenue above analyst estimates, which executives said was the result of weeding out spam and abusive posts and targeting ads better. Trump has one of the most-followed accounts on Twitter. But the president and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly criticized the company and its social media competitors for what they have called bias against conservatives, something Twitter denies.

Democratic U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono said earlier this month: "We cannot allow the Republican party to harass tech companies into weakening content moderation policies that already fail to remove hateful, dangerous and misleading content." Carlos Monje, Twitter’s public policy director, said at a Senate hearing earlier this month the site "does not use political viewpoints, perspectives or party affiliation to make any decisions, whether related to automatically ranking content on our service or how we develop or enforce our rules."