Twitter Blocked From Trump Tech Summit Over an Emoji

Call it EmojiGate. Donald Trump summoned some of the biggest names in tech—Amazon, Facebook, Apple, etc.—to Trump Tower for a meeting Wednesday. But one name was conspicuously absent: Twitter, which Politico notes is practically Trump's "de facto press channel." A source tells the Hill that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was actively not invited to the tech summit because he scuttled a $5 million deal with the Trump campaign for a Crooked Hillary emoji. The Trump campaign apparently wanted to use the emoji, which showed bags of money being stolen or given away, during one of the presidential debates. Twitter says it turned down the deal, as it did with multiple other requests from political groups, because there wasn't enough transparency to make it clear the emoji came from the Trump campaign.

Regardless, RNC spokesperson and Trump adviser Sean Spicer, who the source says made the call not to invite Dorsey, blamed Twitter for letting its "left wing ideology" trump free speech. While Dorsey wasn't in attendance, Wednesday's meeting did include heads of Alphabet, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and more, the Verge reports. In "brief, rambling remarks," Trump said he wanted to help them continue their "incredible innovation" and asked for ideas about trade issues. "We're going to be there for you," he said. He also invited them to call him directly with any problem because "we have no formal chain of command around here."