Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) representatives were omitted from the list of the executives invited to a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump. This was revealed by a spokesperson of the President-elect’s transition team.
“They weren’t invited because they aren’t big enough,” the transition team’s official told Reuters.
Crucial platform for discourse
The absence of Twitter from the invitation list caused surprise to some players in the technology sector in light of the fact that Trump extensively used the social media platform in his election campaign, whether in attacking opponents or stating policy positions. The social media platform also boasts a high profile in engendering policy discussion on issues ranging from cyber security to curbing extremism.
If Twitter had been invited to the meeting with the President-elect it would have been the smallest by market capitalization as it currently has a market capitalization of only $13.85 billion. At Wednesday’s meeting, Tesla was the smallest technology firm with a market capitalization at present of $31.92 billion.
In the outgoing administration, Twitter was regularly invited to meetings alongside other technology companies. This was mainly due to the fact that terrorist groups such as the Daesh (Islamic State) used it effectively. Online bullying is also predominant on the platform.
Emoji advertising deal
Sources, however, indicated that the real reason Twitter was excluded from the meeting was its refusal to enter into an advertising deal with Trump’s campaign back in October. It is understood that the President-elect’s campaign team had wanted a deal during the second presidential debate where a specific emoji would appear on tweets whenever users tweeted a mocking reference to Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton. The microblogging firm opted out of the deal on the grounds that it would be misleading to some of its users because they would be unable to tell it was paid for.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team, however, rejected the argument saying that the meeting had invited other technology executives who previously had run-ins with the President-elect. This included Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Tim Cook and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Jeff Bezos.
Twitter fell 2.27% in Wednesday’s trading to close at $18.93 a share.