Donald Trump has said that he has no plans to quit Twitter even after becoming US President this week, saying a "dishonest" media has forced him to continue tweeting to vent out his views.
"I thought I'd do less of it, but I'm covered so dishonestly by the press - so dishonestly - that I can put out Twitter - and it's not 140, it's now 280 - I can go bing bing bing . . . And they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out....," the President-elect told The Times newspaper.
Trump, who will become the 45th US President on Friday told the paper that he does not intend to lay off Twitter once he is in the Oval Office of the White House and will keep his @realDonaldTrump account.
Trump, who has earned a reputation for making unpredictable statements on Twitter, said that he had considered cutting down his Twitter use. But his reach has become so large that he feels the media are so unkind to him that he will continue to send out updates, he said.
"@realDonaldTrump I think, I'll keep it," he said. "So I've got 46 million people right now - that's a lot, that's really a lot - but 46 million - including Facebook, Twitter and ya know, Instagram, so when you think that you're 46 million there, I'd rather just let that build up and just keep it @realDonaldTrump, it's working....," he said.
Trump's Twitter feed to conduct international diplomacy and attack on media and his rivals had become a source of concern and confusion since he won the election, with many of the posts that come from it changing stock markets and attacking his political enemies.
Some had thought that he would give up the account when he became President or turn it over to his team, but he has promised not to.
A handle exists for the President - @POTUS, which is currently used by President Barack Obama's team - but Trump will apparently use both accounts during his time in the White House.
Chinese state media had recently condemned his obsession with Twitter, asking him to lay off from the social media platform.
Trump has often departed from long-standing US policies and made several controversial comments about China on Twitter.
"The obsession with 'Twitter diplomacy' is undesirable," said a commentary by China's state-run Xinhua news agency had said after Trump made some anti-Beijing comments.
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"It is a commonly accepted that diplomacy is not a child's game -- and even less is it business dealing. As former United States Secretary of State [Madeleine] Albright said, Twitter should not be a tool for foreign policy," the commentary had said.
He's also used Twitter to accuse China of keeping its currency artificially low, of military posturing in the South China Sea and to announce that he'd spoken directly with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen -- upending a long-standing US policy.
Trump had suggested that China was not doing enough to rein in its nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea.
He had also used Twitter to accuse China of keeping its currency artificially low, of military posturing in the South China Sea and to announce that he had spoken directly with Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen -- upending a long-standing US policy on Taiwan, which Beijing claims is part of its territory.
