President-elect Donald Trump had a meeting with major U.S. tech companies including Apple, Amazon, oracle, Facebook and Tesla, but one major technology company was not present at the meeting- Twitter.
People present at the meeting included Apple’s Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Tesla’s Elon Musk. The omission of a Twitter executive was striking, especially because Trump is renowned for his use of Twitter.
According to Politico, Twitter was ‘bounced’ from the meeting because during the Presidential campaign the company refused to allow an emoji version of the hashtag #CrookedHillary.
“The incident at issue was detailed in a Medium post last month by Gary Coby, director of digital advertising and fundraising for the Trump campaign. According to Coby, Dorsey personally intervened to block the Trump operation from deploying — as part of a $5 million deal between the social media company and the campaign — an emoji showing, in various renderings, small bags of money being given away or stolen. That emoji would have been offered to users as a replacement for the hashtag #CrookedHillary, a preferred Trump insult for his Democratic opponent.”
B&T has contacted Twitter about the meeting, but they declined to comment. However, when the #CrookedHillary emoji incident happened a Twitter spokeseperson explained to Recode:
We have had specific discussions with several political organizations, including the Trump campaign, regarding branded emojis as part of broad advertising campaigns on Twitter. We believe that political advertising merits a level of disclosure and transparency that branded political emojis do not meet, and we ultimately decided not to permit this particular format for any political advertising.
Here are some Tweets about the meeting:
The tech giants meet with President-Elect Trump, and no one looks happy. Apple’s Tim Cook (far right) looks downright terrified. pic.twitter.com/cmOSFDfYfE
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) December 14, 2016
They’re drinking Trump branded water… https://t.co/1b8VKUXL13
— Nick Hayden (@NickHayden) December 14, 2016
tfw u realize ur the 1st in the room who’ll be headed to the camps https://t.co/SgeJuHtltS pic.twitter.com/OzJKhDaJhw
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) December 14, 2016
You know secretly right now sitting in a gilded chair at Trump Tower the voice inside Sheryl Sandberg’s head is saying: Lean out. Lean out!
— Kara Swisher (@karaswisher) December 14, 2016
In response to being cut out of Trump’s tech summit, @twitter should make it so whatever he posts automatically converts to poop emojis.
— Cassandra (@ChrisWarcraft) December 14, 2016
Nothing says adult or freedom like Trump kicking Twitter CEO out of tech meeting ‘cuz he refused to make @PEOTUS a “Crooked Hillary” emoji.
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 14, 2016
Featured image: Donald Trump speaks as (2nd L to R) PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel, Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook and Oracle CEO Safra Catz look on during a meeting with technology leaders at Trump Tower in New York U.S., December 14, 2016. REUTERS