Twitter really wants you to know that it will be fine after banning former President Donald Trump from the platform in January.
In its earnings report on Tuesday, the company provided a unique revelation on user growth in the current quarter, saying it saw above-average growth throughout the month despite “unusual circumstances.”
Although Twitter did not explicitly say what those “unusual circumstances” were, it is not difficult to understand. Twitter permanently banned Trump on January 8 after he continued to post messages encouraging and defending the riots in the United States Capitol on January 6. The company also permanently banned thousands of accounts linked to the Qanon movement around the same time.
Shares of Twitter rose as much as 13% on Wednesday morning.
Trump and Qanon’s bans on Twitter raised fears that the company’s fate was tied to Trump and his supporters and that the bans would hurt future growth. But the company went the extra mile Tuesday to show that Trump wasn’t the only major power user on the platform.
“We are a platform that is obviously much larger than any topic or account,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said Tuesday on the company’s earnings call.
He also pointed out the dozens of accounts that have millions of followers and that 80% of all users are outside the US.
“We have a global service. We also don’t just depend on news and politics being what drives Twitter,” Dorsey said.
As for Trump’s return to Twitter one day, the company’s chief financial officer, Ned Segal, made clear Wednesday that it is not an option. Segal told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday that Trump will never be allowed to return to the site, even if he decides to run for office again.