President Trump’s “We will never forget!” tweet in the wake of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s description of the 9/11 attackers prompted Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to give her a personal phone call.
Twitter released a statement Thursday saying the Minnesota Democrat and Mr. Dorsey spoke Tuesday about the social media platform’s rules — particularly those on “death threats, incitement to violence, and hateful conduct.”
“We’ve significantly invested in technology to proactively surface this type of content and will continue to focus on reducing the burden on the individual being targeted,” the statement said. “Our team has also consistently been in touch with Rep. Omar’s office.”
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Washington Post that Ms. Omar wanted to know why Mr. Trump’s tweet, which juxtaposed her recent comments on 9/11 with footage from the 2001 terror attack, was not deleted.
The Democrat said at a recent Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) event that “some people did something” regarding attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Critics accused her of rhetorically obscuring the identity and nature of the attacks for political purposes before a Muslim audience.
Jeremy Slevin, Ms. Omar’s communications director, confirmed to The Washington Times that the call took place but declined to provide further details.
Mr. Dorsey also met Tuesday with Mr. Trump in person to address the president’s assertion that Twitter is “very discriminatory” towards Republican and right-leaning users.
“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,” Mr. Trump tweeted after the meeting.
WE WILL NEVER FORGET! pic.twitter.com/VxrGFRFeJM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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