Trump boasts of helping Twitter triple profit

President Donald Trump immediately claimed credit for the success of Twitter when on Tuesday, the short messaging platform declared profits soared in the past quarter.

Profits in the first quarter hit $191 million, compared with $61 million a year earlier, while revenues increased 18 per cent to $787 million.

Twitter's global user base appeared to show modest growth even as the company transitions to a different way of measuring it.

Trump, arguably the platform's most prominent user, sought to claim credit for the strong Twitter results while renewing his allegations of bias. On his Twitter feed, Trump said the results were good but could be better "if Twitter wasn't playing their political games" and argued for "more, and fairer, companies.

His tweets said: “The best thing ever to happen to Twitter is Donald Trump.” @MariaBartiromo So true, but they don’t treat me well as a Republican. Very discriminatory, hard for people to sign on. Constantly taking people off list. Big complaints from many people. Different names-over 100 M..... But should be much higher than that if Twitter wasn’t playing their political games. No wonder Congress wants to get involved - and they should. Must be more, and fairer, companies to get out the WORD!”

Chief executive Jack Dorsey said Twitter is benefiting from its moves to root out abusive and inauthentic content that had hurt Twitter's reputation. Twitter shares rallied some six percent in pre-market trade on the stronger-than-expected results. The messaging platform has become an important tool for celebrities, politicians and journalists, but has failed to grow as quickly as Facebook and other social media among mainstream internet users.