Twitter says politics is bringing back some users

Maybe that Trump bump is happening for Twitter after all.

Shares of Twitter surged Wednesday after the media platform posted a big increase in its user base, thanks in part to more interest in news and politics sparked by President Donald Trump.

Twitter has served as Trump's preferred platform through his first 100 days in office, using it to express his opinions on topics including health care and immigration.

On Wednesday, Twitter chief operating officer Anthony Noto says the company has seen evidence of growth from new and resurrected users in the U.S. following more news and political accounts.

"We believe Twitter is the best at showing what's happening in the world and what's being talked about," said Noto on a conference call to discuss results. "Having the political leaders of the world as well as news agencies participating and driving that is an important element to reinforcing what we're best at."

Twitter's apparent failure to get a "Trump bump" dogged Twitter's fourth quarter, sending shares skidding and a worrisome signal for future ad sales. Faster user growth in the first quarter was a welcome reversal of that trend.

"We're encouraged by the audience growth momentum we saw in the first quarter," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a statement.

Average monthly active users reached 328 million, up 6% vs. 4% in the prior quarter, while daily active users jumped 14% compared to the same time last year.

"That’s clearly progress from the stagnation we’ve seen over the last couple years," says Jan Dawson, analyst with Jackdaw Research, noting despite the boost overall user growth is still "pretty low."

For the first quarter, the company ended with $548 million in revenue, down 8% year-over-year, but above the $513 million projected by analysts, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Twitter posted adjusted earnings of 11 cents a share, beating estimates projecting a penny per share.

Shares rose 8% to $15.82.

The company says it also made "meaningful progress" on abuse, identifying and removing accounts exhibiting abusive behavior. As a result, Twitter says it has seen fewer reports of abuse across the service.

Twitter has introduced several features to fight back against users who send abusive or harassing tweets. In March, Twitter said it would use algorithms to weed out abusive accounts, and allow users to mute keywords, phrases or full conversations for as long as they want.

Another step toward shedding their reputation as a haven for abuse: ditching the egg avatar. Twitter cited accounts created only to harass others, associating the egg avatar with "negative behavior."

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.