FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Texas from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for the creation of “more, and fairer” social media companies in response to discrimination he said he has faced as a Republican from Twitter Inc.
He also cheered the involvement of U.S. lawmakers, who have called on executive from several technology companies to testify in connection to various scandals.
“No wonder Congress wants to get involved – and they should,” he wrote on Twitter.
Trump has one of the most-followed accounts on Twitter, with nearly 60 million followers, but he has repeatedly criticized the company and its social media competitors for what he has called bias against conservatives.
He has accused Twitter and other tech companies of restricting the visibility of prominent U.S. Republicans, though he has not provided evidence to back up the claim.
Twitter has said it is committed to free expression and reducing accidental bias in its algorithm. Its chief executive Jack Dorsey has also said there is no statistically significant difference between how often tweets from Democrats or Republicans are viewed.
Neither Twitter nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.
Trump’s comments came the same day Twitter reported its first-quarter results.
Twitter’s quarterly revenue topped analyst expectations and its reported a surprise rise in monthly active users, which appeared to indicate its efforts to delete spam accounts and police posts better was helping attract more users and ad dollars.
Reporting by Makini Brice and Susan Heavey; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli