Twitter chief Jack Dorsey admits to feeling 'complicated' about Donald Trump's use of Twitter following shock election result
Last month Donald Trump credited Twitter and Facebook for helping him win the US election, but the former's chief executive Jack Dorsey has said he doesn't believe Twitter is entirely to blame for the rise of Trump.
Twitter chief Jack Dorsey says site wasn't responsible for Donald Trump's shock win / Jack Dorsey Trump
Speaking at Re/code's Code Conference event in California on Tuesday (7 December) Dorsey said he had "complicated" feelings about the president-elect's use of the platform.
“America is responsible for Donald Trump being president,” he said in response to a question about whether he felt responsible for the former Apprentice host's appointment to the White House.
"I feel very proud of the role of the service and what it stands for and everything that we’ve done, and that continues to accelerate every single day. Especially as it’s had such a spotlight on it through his usage and the election."
"The complicated part," he went on, "is just what does this mean to have a direct line to how he’s thinking in real-time and to see that."
Trump kept his profile high on social media in the run up to the November vote, embracing platforms like Facebook Live and Twitter, and Dorsey conceded that the Republican had been proficient in the way he used the latter.
“He’s known how to use it for quite some time. I think it’s an important time for the company and service. And having the president-elect on our service, using it as a direct line of communication, allows everyone to see what’s on his mind in the moment. I think that’s interesting. I think it’s fascinating. I haven’t seen that before.
"So we’re definitely entering a new world where everything is on the surface and we can all see it in real time and we can all have conversations about it.”
Dorsey's comments come as social media firms are increasingly under the spotlight for contributing to the distribution of fake news stories in the lead up to the election.
Earlier this week, Twitter unveiled its most buzzed about moments and events from 2016, revealing that the US election was the second most-discussed trend on the platform coming after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The platform noted more than 40 million election-related tweets on polling day alone.