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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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.”
How could they dare?! Trump thrives on his Russian bots to tell him what a great job he is doing.
Stupid, immature, 'man' baby.
Twitler in chief
Trump complained to Twitter CEO about lost followers: source
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump met with Twitter Inc's Chief Executive Jack Dorsey on Tuesday and spent a significant time questioning him about why he has lost some Twitter followers, a person briefed on the matter said.
The meeting, which was organized by the White House last week, came hours after Trump again attacked the social media company over his claims it is biased against conservatives.
"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.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump suggested Twitter was biased against him without providing evidence. He wrote on Twitter that the company does not "treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory."
Twitter said in a statement Dorsey 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 U.S. elections and efforts underway to respond to the opioid crisis."
Unlike other major U.S. tech company executives, Dorsey had not previously met with Trump.
He was not invited to a December 2016 meeting with president-elect Trump that featured other major tech companies. Reuters reported in 2016 Trump had been angry with Twitter because it had rejected an advertising deal with his campaign.
Trump has been upset about losing followers.
In October, Trump wrote that "Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join - they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all. A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?"
Any reduction is likely the result of Twitter's recent moves to remove millions of suspicious accounts after it and other social media services were used in misinformation campaigns attempting to influence voters in the 2016 U.S. presidential race and other elections, Reuters reported in October.
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 lost 204,000, or 0.4 percent, of his 53.4 million followers in July when Twitter started its purge of suspicious accounts, according to social media data firm Keyhole.
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."
Much like with the Bout Scout Jamboree he regaled the children with tales of evil liberals thwarting his omnipotence.
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 'repeatedly complains about Obama having more Twitter followers than him'
Donald Trump has reportedly complained multiple times about having fewer Twitter followers than Barack Obama .
In a White House meeting with Twitter chief Jack Dorsey on Tuesday, the US president allegedly complained about followers he had lost, and suggested it was part of an anti-Trump agenda by the company.
According to sources familiar with the conversation who spoke to US media, Mr Trump said other conservatives had complained to him they were experiencing similar problems on the platform.
The Daily Beast also reported sources close to Mr Trump revealed the president has grumbled repeatedly about how Mr Obama has more Twitter followers than he does, despite – by his own assessment – being far better than his predecessor at tweeting.
Mr Trump’s conversation with Mr Dorsey came just hours after the president baselessly accused Twitter of being “very discriminatory” towards Republicans and of playing “political games”.
Mr Dorsey reportedly reassured Mr Trump his company was only deleting fake accounts, and like other users, the president’s account periodically sheds followers when Twitter removes them.
The meeting came as news broke that Twitter had deactivated roughly 5,000 pro-Trump bots on the platform that pushed out disinformation last week alongside the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russia’s influence in the 2016 election.
Later on Tuesday, Mr Trump tweeted: “Great meeting this afternoon at the [White House] with [Mr Dorsey] from [Twitter].
“Lots of subjects discussed regarding their platform, and the world of social media in general. Look forward to keeping an open dialogue!”
Mr Trump, an avid Twitter user, has in recent months attacked the US tech industry, and has threatened to regulate Facebook, Google and Twitter over what he perceives as censorship of conservatives.
The president’s fixation with social media numbers, particularly in relation to Mr Obama, echoes his apparent fury over the fact he attracted far fewer people to his inauguration in 2017.
Mr Trump repeatedly claimed falsely he had a larger crowd than Mr Obama did, and government documents revealed the White House went so far as to edit images of his inauguration to make it look larger.
The White House has been contacted for comment.
trump, who hates ALL laws and regulations on anything especially anything to do with himself, wants to regulate twitter?
Can you prove that?
Or just making it up?
Can you prove he doesn't
Can you prove that?
There are several books and documentaries about Trump's life and crimes. Try reading/watching one.
Trump's gutting of the EPA staff, regulations and funding pretty much prove his intent.
Neither Trump nor his EPA directors even believe in AGW/global climate change. That is criminally insane.
Sorry, but I am not in the habit of proving what others claim.
Perhaps you should ask the person who CLAIMED it.
Nothing you wrote proved what was claimed, either.
I claimed it, and unless it's anti-immigrant, he's shot down any business, bank, environmental or federal regulations he can reach, I'm just not going over it item by item so you can ignore it all.
Likewise for any regulations or laws that hamper him or his money, and he's fighting with Congress about limits on his power, and he's decided that there will be no subpoenas accepted for information on himself or any of his staff past or present in the WH if he has any say in the matter at all.
If anybody hasn't noticed him doing this it's because they just don't want to see it.
Hail, "king" trump and his lower lackeys.
But we still have business, bank, environmental and federal regulations. Which means that Trump isn't against every law and regulation as you have claimed.
if you didn't mean to say that, now is a good time to correct your rather sweeping statement.
LOL
Just call it "a work in progress" there are checks and balances he has to plow through.
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.
Yes
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.
Do you "Cheer-on" that Stupid Fuck Rump?
What work is Rump doing for this country?
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.
'Can you Tell me the bad he's done to this country ?'
How much time do you have?
What good has he done for this country?
Your income has gone up. That's great. What does Rump have to do with that?
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 !