Twitter really wants you to know it’ll be just fine after banning former President Donald Trump from the platform in January.
In its earnings report Tuesday, the company provided a unique disclosure on user growth in the current quarter, saying it saw above average growth throughout the month despite “unusual circumstances.”
Although Twitter didn’t explicitly say what those “unusual circumstances” were, it’s not hard to figure out. Twitter permanently banned Trump on Jan. 8 after he continued to post messages encouraging and defending the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The company also permanently banned thousands of accounts tied to the Qanon movement around the same time.
Twitter shares were up as much as 13% as of Wednesday morning.
Twitter’s Trump and Qanon bans spurred fears that company’s destiny was tied to Trump and his followers and that the bans would damage future growth. But the company took extra effort Tuesday to show Trump wasn’t the only important power user on the platform.
“We’re a platform that is obviously much larger than any one topic or any one account,” Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said on the company’s earnings call on Tuesday.
He also pointed to the dozens of accounts that have millions of followers and that 80% of all users are outside the U.S.
“We have a global service. We are also not just dependent upon just news and politics being what drives Twitter,” Dorsey said.
As for Trump returning to Twitter one day, the company’s CFO Ned Segal made it clear Wednesday that’s not an option. Segal told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday that Trump would never be allowed to return to the site, even if he decides to run for office again.
