Twitter: Trump’s favorite toy grabs back
“Very unfair!” These are words that must have crossed Twitter founder and CEO Jack Dorsey’s mind during the announcement of the microblogging platform’s quarterly results on February 9.
Despite the monstrous publicity gratuitously offered by Donald Trump’s presidential seal of approval, Twitter was only able to attract two million new users to the platform in Q4 2016 — a pale comparison to the 70 million welcomed by Facebook.
The gap between these two men, different by every measure, is getting wider by the day. And with the divorce between Washington and Silicon Valley well underway, the Internet has been caught in the crossfire — becoming increasingly polarized as a result.
Twitter’s own El Comandante
Emboldened through his 25.4 million followers, Donald Trump elicits thousands of reactions mere minutes after tweeting biting remarks in words that never seem to have more than three syllables. And what really gets under the skin of his detractors? Donald Trump is a machine for generating online engagement.
What’s more: thanks to Twitter, Trump manages to speak directly to the media whether or not they want to hear it. Trump sets the tempo: he is the metronome for news coverage.
Just as George Clooney was able to persuade us to buy pretentious, exorbitantly-priced coffee, Trump should have been able to convince Mr. and Mrs. Everybody to join the battlefield of free expression that is Twitter.
But the Donald came off too strong.
Part of media coverage in their own right, his tweets have a global audience and reach. As a result, it is no longer necessary to be on Twitter to get the update on his latest rave or rant. You can even ask your grandmother: she probably discovered Twitter through her local paper. But has she ever thought about signing up?
If you don’t like me, I don’t like you either
Asked about his feelings toward Trump’s success on Twitter during a December 2016 conference hosted by technology news outlet Recode, Jack Dorsey responded with a simple “complicated.” Before adding that it was “interesting” that President Trump “[uses] it as a direct line of communication, allow[ing] everyone to see what’s on his mind in the moment.” Meh.
Another tell-tale sign: in December, the Twitter CEO wasn’t invited by Trump to his gathering of American tech giant executives, including Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Tesla.
A noted absence — especially because Twitter isn’t just Donald Trump’s plaything. Society is also at the center of major issues: cybersecurity, the fight against terrorism, and freedom of expression amongst others.
International news agency Reuters implied President Trump’s personal vendetta against the microblogging platform due to Dorsey’s refusal to create an anti-Clinton emoji (you know, these guys 😀❤️👍⚽️🐱🍀) in the months leading to the presidential election. Twitter never gave its side of the story — but this apparent neutrality wouldn’t last forever.
Less than a month after Trump’s move into the White House, Jack Dorsey and his staff donated $1.6 to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), one of the key non-governmental organizations working against Trump’s immigration ban and executive order.
Trump’s discourse of saying anything and everything has and will continue to occur. But to threaten Silicon Valley’s economic model — an area that attracts great minds from all over the world, no way!
Game over?
President Trump won’t be letting go of his favorite digital megaphone any time soon. In an article mixing fact-checking and trolling, the Washington Post confirmed through a heavily-documented post that Trump spent at least 18 hours of his time on Twitter (and 25 hours golfing) during the first month of his presidency.
On his end, Jack Dorsey is now asserting his strong anti-Trump position by sharing (on Twitter, of course) articles and critical editorials that criticise Trump’s politics and his attitude towards the media and minorities.
In his opening remarks published on Medium regarding Twitter’s performance in Q4 2016, Dorsey stressed Twitter is “the fastest way to see what’s happening and what everyone’s talking about.” He would also mention that “there is one thing that continues to grow and outpace [its] peers: Twitter’s influence and impact” — a statement validated by the media frenzy that surrounds the microblogging platform thanks to Trump, yet is based on faulty logic as its number of new users failed to increase substantially in Q4.
In this grand game of influence, Twitter has already deleted accounts belonging to media trolls. But if Twitter were to purely target users whose attitudes are judged as being unacceptable, would such a condition be applicable to President Trump? Twitter has already stated that all users must respect the terms and conditions of the site, or have their account deleted as a consequence.
Such an action would likely receive prominent media coverage and be perceived as a real politically-charged act on the part of Twitter and its CEO — linking Dorsey’s positions to his actions, but also polarizing a frenzy of Trump supporters and detractors. The former would quit Twitter by the masses and create a “clone platform,” with the latter saluting Twitter for its courageous and engaged act.
But are these kinds of extreme measures really desirable? Beyond its unforeseen impact on Twitter’s business model, this option would only emphasize the increasing ghettoization of the Internet by creating hermit communities that only keep to themselves and their homogenous line of thinking. Welcome to a world of e pluribus unum no more: a world of disunity in our diversity.
Check the French version of the article on Usbek & Rica.
Translation : André Chuong.
