Democrats are furious with Facebook and Twitter for refusing to remove a doctored video posted by President Trump showing Nancy Pelosi ripping up his speech while a black World War Two veteran was being honored by Congress.
The president on Thursday posted a video to his tens of millions of followers on social media splicing in footage of the House speaker tearing up his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
The altered video, titled ‘Powerful American stories ripped to shreds by Nancy Pelosi,’ makes it appear as though Pelosi tore up the speech just as the president was introducing Charles McGee.
McGee, 100, is one of the last surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen. He was honored by the president for flying more than 135 combat missions over Europe during the Second World War.
But real-life, unedited footage from Trump’s address on Tuesday shows Pelosi standing and applauding McGee.
President Trump on Thursday posted a video to his social media accounts on Twitter and Facebook making it appear as if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up his State of the Union speech after he introduced a member of the Tuskegee Airmen on Tuesday
The video went viral as it was viewed millions of times and shared and liked tens of thousands of times
The speaker tore up the president’s speech at the conclusion of his remarks – well after the joint session of Congress paid near unanimous tribute to one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen.
The deceptive editing has angered Democrats, who are now demanding that the social media platforms where the clip went viral – Twitter and Facebook – remove it.
Hours after Trump posted the doctored clip, officials from Pelosi’s office reached out to both Facebook and Twitter and demanded that the clip be taken down.
Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, took to social media, writing: ‘The latest fake video of Speaker Pelosi is deliberately designed to mislead and lie to the American people, and every day that these platforms refuse to take it down is another reminder that they care more about their shareholders’ interests than the public’s interests.’
A spokesperson for Facebook, Andy Stone, replied: ‘Sorry, are you suggesting the President didn’t make those remarks and the Speaker didn’t rip the speech?’
To which Hammill responded: ‘What planet are you living on? This is deceptively altered. Take it down.’
Facebook and Twitter both declined to remove the video.
‘I can confirm for you that the video doesn’t violate our policies,’ Stone told CNBC.
During Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, Pelosi is seen standing and applauding the World War Two veteran alongside Vice President Mike Pence. President Trump is seen in the foreground
Stone said Facebook’s policies call for removing videos that were edited to make it appear a person said something they didn’t say or did something they didn’t do.
Hammill accused Facebook of pursuing profits even if it means misinforming the public.
‘I think they have a history here of promoting and making money off of content that is intentionally false,’ Hammill said.
Twitter, meanwhile, told Pelosi’s office that its new policy cracking down on manipulated media doesn’t go into effect until March 5.
Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Charles McGee, who served with the Tuskegee Airmen, attended the State of the Union address with his great- grandson Iain Lanphier, 13,
McGee, 100, and his great grandson Iain Lanphier react as Trump delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress
McGee, 100, flew 136 combat missions in World War II as part of the famed Tuskegee Airmen
Under its current rules, the micro-blogging site will not remove the video posted by Trump since it does not violate its old policy.
Twitter announced on Tuesday that the site would institute new rules on manipulated media, saying: ‘You may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm.
‘In addition, we may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand the media’s authenticity and to provide additional context.’
Twitter has vowed to examine videos to see ‘whether the content has been substantially edited in a manner that fundamentally alters its composition, sequence, timing or framing’ as well as looking at ‘any visual or auditory information (such as new video frames, overdubbed audio or modified subtitles) that has been added or removed.’
Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, criticized Facebook and Twitter for not removing the clip posted by Trump
Andy Stone, a spokesperson for Facebook, asked Hammill: ‘Sorry, are you suggesting the President didn’t make those remarks and the Speaker didn’t rip the speech?’
A Twitter spokesperson was asked if the video posted by Trump violated its policies that are scheduled to go into effect next month.
‘I can’t get into hypotheticals,’ the spokeswoman, Katie Rosborough, said.
On Twitter, the video has so far generated more than 5million views, 64,000 retweets, 188,500 likes, and 38,000 comments.
On Facebook, the video has been viewed more than 2.6 million times. It has amassed more than 103,000 reactions, 15,000 comments, and 30,000 shares.
Democrats were outraged.
House Rep. Don Beyer tweeted: ‘This video is doctored. It has been up, and pinned to the President’s page, for nearly a day.
‘Trump posted it to deceive Americans about [Pelosi’s] actions and record.
‘If I posted a doctored video it would be a clear violation of House Rules.
‘Twitter should take this down.’
Another Democrat, House Rep. David Cicilline, tweeted: ‘Hey @Twitter, this video is clearly edited in a way that’s intended to mislead viewers.
‘You should take it down.’
House Rep. Ro Khanna tweeted: ‘Twitter must take this misleading video about Speaker Pelosi down now.
House Rep. Don Beyer tweeted: ‘This video is doctored. It has been up, and pinned to the President’s page, for nearly a day.’ He called on Twitter to take down the clip
House Rep. Ro Khanna tweeted: ‘Twitter must take this misleading video about Speaker Pelosi down now.’
Another Democrat, House Rep. David Cicilline, tweeted: ‘Hey @Twitter, this video is clearly edited in a way that’s intended to mislead viewers. You should take it down.’
‘Social media platforms are a place where people come for news & information.
‘They need to have certain standards.
‘Falsity has never been part of our 1st Amendment tradition.’
Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, told CNBC: ‘If Nancy Pelosi fears images of her ripping up the speech, perhaps she shouldn’t have ripped up the speech.’
It is unclear who actually produced the video Trump posted. DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.
Pelosi, meanwhile, is also trying to get Facebook to remove photos and videos showing the House speaker taking part in the ‘tide pod challenge.’
The doctored memes make it appear as if Pelosi is eating a tide pod, the small bags filled with liquid laundry detergent.
Facebook told CNBC that it has already taken down such videos.
Last year, YouTube removed a doctored clip of Pelosi making remarks at a Washington, DC, event last spring. It had been slowed down to about 75 per cent to make her appear drunk, or slurring her words
The deceptively edited video was altered to make Pelosi appear to be drunkenly slurring her words
‘When the Tide Pod challenge began we said we would take down any such videos brought to our attention out of concern for people’s safety, which is why we’ve removed this video from our platform,’ a Facebook spokesman said.
In late 2017 and early 2018, several teens uploaded video of themselves eating Tide Pod capsules.
The dangerous viral trend resulted in several thousand children – many of whom under the age of five – ingesting the detergent.
Pelosi was also the victim of another infamously doctored video that was eventually removed by YouTube.
Last spring, a slowed-down video of Pelosi went viral online, distorting the speed so that she appeared to slur her words and appeared cognitively impaired.
The video of Pelosi’s speech at a Center for American Progress event was subtly edited to make her voice sound garbled and slowed down, as if she was under the influence of alcohol.