Twitter CEO Gently Tells Trump: Your ‘Lost’ Followers Are Bots and Spam Accounts
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Twitter CEO Gently Tells Trump: Your ‘Lost’ Followers Are Bots and Spam Accounts
By William.Sommer@thedailybeast.com (Will Sommer) asawin.suebsaeng@thedailybeast.com (Asawin Suebsaeng), The Daily Beast 11 hours ago 
Photo Illustration by Lyne Lucien/The Daily Beast/Photos Getty
On Tuesday, President Trump hosted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in the Oval Office for a closed-door meeting, during which the leader of the free world spent an inordinate amount of time complaining about lost Twitter followers, according to a source familiar with the conversation.
The Twitter chief, for his part, tried to reassure the president that the company’s staff merely wants his follower count to be as bot-free as possible.
This is what the most powerful person in the world was preoccupied with Tuesday.
A large percentage of the meeting, which included senior White House officials such as Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino, was spent addressing the subject of @realDonaldTrump’s follower count. The president stated his belief that he had lost some of his roughly 59 million followers in anti-Trump, anti-conservative Twitter purges, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Dorsey, according to this knowledgeable source, had to explain to the president that like other Twitter users, @realDonaldTrump periodically loses followers when the site deletes fake or bot accounts. Dorsey even said he himself had lost followers as a result of Twitter’s efforts to delete fake accounts.
During this private gathering in the West Wing, Dorsey assured Trump that the company wants him, and everyone else on Twitter, to have only real followers, according to the source.
Trump also said he’s heard from other prominent conservatives about problems with Twitter, though he declined to name names.
The summit with Twitter’s CEO is unlikely to assuage the president’s concerns about tech giants and social media, of which he has many . Two people close to Trump previously told The Daily Beast that Trump has repeatedly griped to associates about how his predecessor, President Obama, has had more Twitter followers than he has, even though—by Trump’s own assessment—he is so much better at Twitter than Obama is.
The Washington Post first reported that the president devoted much of the White House meeting to grumbling about his Twitter followers. Earlier in the day, Motherboard broke the news that Trump and Dorsey were meeting on Tuesday.
Dorsey also used the meeting to promote Twitter’s efforts to fight opioid addiction, which include using a special emoji to promote National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. It is unclear how interested Trump was in discussing those efforts, at least compared to his time spent inquiring about the alleged purging of his followers.
Beyond confirming that the meeting had indeed occurred, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not respond to The Daily Beast’s follow-up questions as of press time.
The discussion came a few hours after early morning tweets from the president accusing Twitter of playing “political games” with his follower count and calling for congressional intervention against the company.
“Constantly taking people off list,” Trump tweeted. “Big complaints from many people.”
Dan Scavino, was spent addressing the subject of @realDonaldTrump’s follower count. The president stated his belief that he had lost some of his roughly 59 million followers in anti-Trump, anti-conservative Twitter purges, according to a source familiar with the meeting.
Dorsey, according to this knowledgeable source, had to explain to the president that like other Twitter users, @realDonaldTrump periodically loses followers when the site deletes fake or bot accounts. Dorsey even said he himself had lost followers as a result of Twitter’s efforts to delete fake accounts.
During this private gathering in the West Wing, Dorsey assured Trump that the company wants him, and everyone else on Twitter, to have only real followers, according to the source.
Trump also said he’s heard from other prominent conservatives about problems with Twitter, though he declined to name names.
The summit with Twitter’s CEO is unlikely to assuage the president’s concerns about tech giants and social media, of which he has many . Two people close to Trump previously told The Daily Beast that Trump has repeatedly griped to associates about how his predecessor, President Obama, has had more Twitter followers than he has, even though—by Trump’s own assessment—he is so much better at Twitter than Obama is.
The Washington Post first reported that the president devoted much of the White House meeting to grumbling about his Twitter followers. Earlier in the day, Motherboard broke the news that Trump and Dorsey were meeting on Tuesday.
Dorsey also used the meeting to promote Twitter’s efforts to fight opioid addiction, which include using a special emoji to promote National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. It is unclear how interested Trump was in discussing those efforts, at least compared to his time spent inquiring about the alleged purging of his followers.
Beyond confirming that the meeting had indeed occurred, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders did not respond to The Daily Beast’s follow-up questions as of press time.
The discussion came a few hours after early morning tweets from the president accusing Twitter of playing “political games” with his follower count and calling for congressional intervention against the company.
“Constantly taking people off list,” Trump tweeted. “Big complaints from many people.”
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There can be no greater pain than to have love and lost, take pity on the child Tessylo:)
Just another shinning example of the Man Child at play when the teacher is out of the room.
trump, who hates ALL laws and regulations on anything especially anything to do with himself, wants to regulate twitter?
He lost the Russian fake accounts and the bots. Hilarious.
Now he is losing real followers because it has become clear he welcomed foreign interference in our election and he welcomes foreign interference on his twitter account if it makes him look like he is "popular".
The guy is so ignorantly insecure that it is almost painful to watch.
Almost? I couldn't stand him before he became President. I saw about three minutes of his faux-reality show and had to change the channel from the obvious narcissistic rectal wart spouting bullshit from his pursed balloon knot mouth. Having to be subjected to him daily for the last two years is absolute torture. I think I'd rather have my fingernails pulled than watch Trump stumble around as President proclaiming "I meant to do that!" every time he breaks something or screws something up. Even prior to the Presidency, if you had asked me to show you a picture of the most contemptible, worthless, narcissistic piece of garbage America had to offer, I would have shown the stunningly vapid face of Donald Trump.
As a long time news junky I noticed Trump's insanity long before his TV show and before he started trashing Obama as not being a US citizen. I've watched a few documentaries and read a few books about Trump. The motherfucker has always been crazily, stupidly insane. I fear for the planet as long as he is president.
Considering the amount of fake news Trump has retweeted , he's lucky they don't take away his account altogether.
I was wondering about that myself. Never been a member of twitter but I'm glad they are trying to be more responsible as to Russian bots and spammers (Trump being the worst of the ilk).
Strange that 'Twitter' would remove the Trump's bot accounts seeing as how the Trump is himself a 'bot.'
I think what President Trump was pointing out has merit. Numerous acct have been banned that I don't see what they said as being hate speech. Of course the Left leaning reports have them labeled as far right extremist.
Did she Lie?
All far right wing conservatives either lie or are not intelligent enough to understand global facts that aren't fed to them by the Kochs, ALEC the Heartland Institute the Heritage Foundation or any number of far right wing fascist groups. So sad that all of their intel comes directly from the fossil fuel industry.
Make no mistakes folks, the fossil fuel industry would rather see this planet a wasteland than give up a single dime of profit. Our current president seems to feel the same way. "drill baby drill" is just not sustainable anymore. That's what got us into this AGW/climate change mess in the first place. There are many working power alternatives to fossil fuels. It's way past time to stop polluting and overpopulating this planet. It's the only one we have.
Also this possibility/probability, the Trump's 'real followers' are lost also.
He's worried about his lost Twitter followers while Vlad and Lil Kim are meeting in Vladivostok.....
He really needs to get his priorities straightened out
Vlad and Lil Kim are probably rolling on the floor laughing at us.
The super-duper-uber-crying Lefty constant investigations that are disrupting our "Politicians" from actually doing work for this country, is what is making them laugh.
Seems the "Russians" accomplished what they actually wanted to happen ? Kaos !
Our Lifer Politicians are such Stupid Fucks, along with those that "Cheer-on" those same "Stupid Fucks" ! !
Yes it seems that they did. It also helped Trump so they also got their sanctions lifted and all it cost them is the empty promise of a tall building in Moscow some day in the future.
You don't read news much huh !
Can you Tell me the bad he's done to this country ?
I know my income has gone up. Isn't that one of the things government is supposed to accomplish for it's citizens ?
I'm sure they are. They successfully triggered a bunch of snowflakes into thinking that they colluded with President Trump causing a two year investigation costing millions of dollars, not to mention the rising sea levels from all the crying.
Climate Change/Warming/Disruption ……….. whatever the fuck they call it now.....is a "Liberal" trigger. Stop "Triggering" them.
Pretty much …. a bunch. Just listening to Michael Jackson Songs right now.
I'll wait.
"according to a source familiar with the conversation."
Do we have an actual name of that "Familiar Source" yet ?
Soooo many "Knowledgeable Sources" (it seems), and not one friggin person is willing to put their "NAME" on the line.
To fucking funny !