Is Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey a fan of President-elect Donald Trump’s tweets? The question was relayed to the platform’s chief at Recode’s Code Commerce event on Tuesday. Dorsey’s reply was characteristically diplomatic, but nonetheless revealing.
It’s “complicated” responded Dorsey. Trump certainly adores the platform, which he uses at all hours of the day to express his thoughts on everything from foreign policy to pop culture. At the very least, it seems Dorsey is aware of all the positive publicity Trump’s tweets are generating for the platform. After all, if Trump tweets it, you can bet it will be news.
“I feel very proud of the role of the service and what it stands for and everything that we’ve done, and that continues to accelerate every single day,” remarked the Twitter co-founder and current head honcho. “Especially as it’s had such a spotlight on it through his usage and the election.”
The “complicated part,” according to Dorsey, “is just what does this mean to have a direct line to how he’s thinking in real time and to see that.” He continued: “Having the president-elect on our service, using it as a direct line of communication, allows everyone to see what’s on his mind in the moment … I think it’s fascinating, I haven’t seen that before. So we’re definitely entering a new world where everything is on the surface and we can all see it in real time and we can all have conversations about it.”
Just this week, Trump explained his Twitter activity as a reaction to the mainstream media’s inaccurate depiction of him. He wrote: “If the press would cover me accurately [and] honorably, I would have far less reason to “tweet.” Sadly, I don’t know if that will ever happen!”
With Twitter taking a bold stance against hate speech of late — a move that has seen it ban dozens of accounts — the platform recently made it clear that absolutely no one (not even Trump) could bypass its policies. In a statement, the company reportedly said “it would consider banning key government officials, even the president, if its rules against hate speech or other language were violated.”
