Conway on Twitter meeting: Trump is concerned about people ‘losing followers’

by Emily Birnbaum - 04/24/19 12:04 PM ET

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Wednesday said President Trump is “very concerned” about people “losing followers” in response to a question about his meeting the day before with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

“The president’s very concerned about what he sees as losing followers or people being blocked from certain actions,” Conway told reporters outside of the White House. “That’s obvious. Some of you have bothered to cover it.”

.@KellyannePolls on @realDonaldTrump meeting with @Jack: “They had a very productive conversation about keeping the media platforms open for 2020. The president is very concerned about what he sees as losing followers.” pic.twitter.com/BAGS4JfI3u

— CSPAN (@cspan) April 24, 2019

{mosads}Trump during the Oval Office meeting with Dorsey on Tuesday reportedly raised concerns that he has been losing Twitter followers, one element of his ongoing allegations that social media platforms – including Twitter – discriminate against conservatives, according to The Washington Post and The Daily Beast.

Dorsey reportedly told Trump that high-profile accounts routinely lose followers as Twitter removes bots and spam accounts from its platform, adding that he himself has lost followers in those purges.

“They had a very productive conversation about keeping the media platforms open for 2020,” Conway said.

Trump on Twitter celebrated his meeting with Dorsey, calling it “great” and saying he looks forward to “keeping an open dialogue.”

Dorsey in a tweet responding to the president wrote, “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.”

Trump has joined the chorus of conservatives who claim the country’s largest social media companies routinely undermine and censor right-wing voices. The companies have pushed back on the allegations, saying that there is little evidence for them and they do not discriminate based on any political ideology.

Ahead of the meeting with Dorsey on Tuesday, Trump bashed Twitter in a pair of tweets.

“Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people. Different names-over 100 [million]. But should be much higher than that if Twitter wasn’t playing their political games,” Trump tweeted that morning.

Dorsey and Trump at the meeting also discussed Twitter’s efforts to combat the opioid crisis, Conway emphasized. She said many leading tech companies, including Google, Amazon and Facebook, have aided the White House in its opioid efforts.

Twitter has launched a hashtag and emoji to encourage people to dispose of their opioids at local drop-off sites.

This Saturday is “Take Back Day,” an effort backed by the Drug Enforcement Administration that encourages Americans to dispose of their opioids.

Tags Donald Trump Kellyanne Conway