Trump Is Good for Twitter, Doesn't Deserve Ban, Chairman Says

Twitter’s executive chairman Omid Kordestani said the social-media platform shouldn’t ban President Donald Trump, pushing back against complaints from users who say some of his tweets amount to cyberbullying and violate the company’s terms of service, according to Bloomberg.

Trump, who frequently uses Twitter to broadcast his thoughts in 140 characters, has drawn criticism for many of his tweets, including a recent video depicting him beating up a wrestling opponent with the CNN logo superimposed on his victim’s head. A series of tweets disparaging the personal appearance and intellect of TV host Mika Brzezinski also fueled complaints. Twitter’s rules allow the company to suspend accounts for violent threats, gender-based attacks and other forms of abuse and harassment.

Trump also uses Twitter for other purposes, including recaps of his discussions with other world leaders, his takes on current events and praise or disdain for companies. The president has 33.7 million followers, up from around 24 million at the time of his inauguration.

Twitter, under pressure after posting its first quarterly revenue decline since going public in 2013, has found that accounts like Trump’s are a potential source of growth. Average monthly users increased 6 percent to 328 million in the first quarter from a year earlier, in part because of “new and resurrected users following more news and political accounts,“ especially in the U.S., the company said in April.

Anthony Noto, the company’s chief operating officer, has said that since people go to Twitter to see what’s happening, it’s easier for the social media company to deliver on its mission if influential people like Trump start discussions there. “We’d love it if every world leader used Twitter as their primary mechanism to talk to their constituencies,“ Noto said in May. “The more that happens, the better we are going to be at showing what’s going on in the world.“