Twitter dealt a “manipulated media” fact-checking label to an edited video President Trump shared of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Early Wednesday morning, the president shared an altered video of Biden appearing at a campaign event in Kissimmee, Florida, to woo Hispanic voters. At the event, Biden played the 2017 song “Despacito” from his phone, but the clip Trump shared showed him appearing to play an anti-police song from rap group N.W.A.
“What is this all about?” Trump tweeted. The video continues to show Biden appearing to play the 1988 song, “F— tha Police.”
What is this all about? https://t.co/AAmBGgHhyR
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 16, 2020
After Biden played “Despacito,” he joked, “I’ll tell you what, if I had the talent of any one of these people, I’d be elected president by acclamation.”
.@JoeBiden steps out and starts playing Despacito from his phone. pic.twitter.com/V5lkUBOoCb
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) September 16, 2020
Last month, the social media giant banned the Trump campaign’s account from tweeting unless it removed a post that included a clip of the president claiming children are “almost immune” to COVID-19. The social media platform said the content “is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation.”
In late May, Twitter applied a fact-checking label for the first time to one of the president’s tweets after he commented on mail-in voting. “There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people,” Trump claimed on Twitter.
Users who clicked the link were directed to several news articles that fact-checked Trump’s claim. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey defended the company’s actions, claiming, “Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves.”
In June, Twitter labeled a tweet from Trump “manipulated media” after he shared a video of two toddlers, one running away from the other, part of a clip that went viral in 2019. Edited to depict CNN misleadingly covering the footage, it showed the captions, “Terrified toddler runs from racist baby,” and, “Racist baby probably a Trump voter.”
The video then shows the entire clip to reveal the two toddlers hugging and playing with one another. “America is not the problem,” a voice-over says. “Fake news is. If you see something, say something. Only you can prevent fake news dumpster fires.”
