Twitter has a Trump problem, but the social network is happy using this problem to its advantage in overseas markets, where its most divisive and controversial account is being deployed as part of a marketing campaign to boost user numbers.As calls to ban President Donald Trump from Twitter continue in the US, Twitter knows full well this controversy is a key part to any future success it may have.
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Adverts appearing in metro train carriages and stations in Tokyo over the last few weeks show a close up of US President Donald Trump idiosyncratically pointing a finger out to an audience during a speech, alongside a Japanese hashtag that translates to #TrumpAdministration. The ads are part of a Twitter campaign called 'There is a 'now' you don't know about', with the idea obviously being to let commuters know that Twitter is the best place to be for all the latest news.
And as TechCrunch points out, similar shock tactics Twitter used in 2016, including images of refugees and marijuana, show that Twitter isn't scared of using politics for gain, even if it refuses to address it directly on the platform.Subscribe to pluspluspodcast, Motherboard's new show about the people and machines that are building our future.
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