Twitter has disabled President Trump’s campaign tribute video to George Floyd on its platform, citing a copyright complaint.
The clip, which is a collation of photos and videos of protest marches and instances of violence in the aftermath of Floyd’s death, has Trump speaking in the background.
Floyd’s death after a fatal encounter with a police officer on May 25 has led to nationwide, and even global protests.
In widely circulated video footage, a white officer Derek Chauvin was seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck as Floyd gasped for air and repeatedly said, ‘I can’t breathe,’ before passing out.
The decision to remove the video is the latest from Twitter in an on-going feud between the social media platform and the President that begun with Twitter fact-checking his tweets.
Twitter has disabled President Trump’s campaign tribute video to George Floyd on its platform, citing a copyright complaint. Pictured: President Donald Trump returns to the White House in Washington on June 1, 2020
Twitter said the video on the president’s campaign account was affected by its copyright policy.
‘We respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives,’ a Twitter representative said.
The three-minute 45-second video uploaded on Trump’s YouTube channel was tweeted by his campaign on June 3.
The video shred by the Trump campaign Twitter account was disabled ‘in response to a report by the copyright owner’ the message in its place said
The clip, which is still on YouTube, had garnered more than 60,000 views and 13,000 likes. The video-streaming platform’s parent Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The social media platform has been under fierce scrutiny from the Trump administration since it fact-checked Trump’s tweets about unsubstantiated claims of mail-in voting fraud.
It also labeled a Trump tweet about protests in Minneapolis as ‘glorifying violence.’
The video shared by Trump’s campaign twitter account showed images of police officers and protesters as Trump spoke in the background
After a minute of such clips, the video turned to the president using the video as a reason to criticize ‘radical left-wing groups’
‘The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters and anarchists’, the President claims in the video
Trump has pledged to introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken a law that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users.
In the video, the President’s voice-over begins by acknowledging ‘the pain that people are feeling’ over the death of George Floyd, calling his death a ‘grave tragedy’.
‘We support the right of peaceful protesters, and we hear their pleas,’ said Trump. ‘I stand before you as a friend and ally to every American seeking justice and peace.’
Images in the first minute of the video show peaceful protests on the streets of the U.S., but before long, the images change to show violence and riots.
‘The memory of George Floyd is being dishonored by rioters, looters and anarchists’, the President claims in the video, who then also takes aim at ‘ANTIFA’ – the anti-fascism activist group, who he claims is leading the violence, as well as other ‘radical left-wing groups.’
The video draws from a number of videos that have been widely shared online on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok in the days since George Floyd’s death showing protests against police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The video then shows protesters and police in moving situations, such as police giving rousing speeches, or hugging protesters. The video does not show the heavy handed tactics that the police have been heavily criticized for when trying to quash the protests.
It is unclear which footage used by Trump’s campaign team has caused Twitter to take the campaign video down from its platform.
On May 29, Twitter red-flagged a Trump tweet for the second time in four days by covering the president’s message about the Minneapolis riots with a comment that it ‘glorifies violence’.
Trump’s statement that ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’ is now hidden by a warning that it violated Twitter’s rules – but the message can be bypassed and the tweet remains live.
The president had used Twitter to intervene in the riots which erupted for a third night running following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who had gasped for breath as a police officer knelt on his head.
Trump’s 1am tweet described the looters as ‘thugs’ and warned that the federal government would ‘assume control’ with ‘shooting’ if necessary after protesters set fire to a police precinct.
But Twitter put a warning on the tweet less than three hours later, saying it had ‘taken action in the interest of preventing others from being inspired to commit violent acts’.
Twitter today added its second warning to a Donald Trump tweet in four days by covering the president’s message about the Minneapolis riots with a comment that it ‘glorifies violence’
Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey, pictured, was informed in advance that Trump’s tweet was about to be red-flagged
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was informed in advance about the move, which is the latest escalation in Trump’s feud with the website after it issued a fact-check warning against him on Tuesday and the president issued an executive order yesterday which seeks to strip social media giants of their legal protections.
The tweet can no longer be liked or replied to and will not be recommended by Twitter’s algorithm, although retweets with comment are still possible – with Trump’s message initially hidden.
It is still possible to override the warning message and view the tweet, under special rules for government officials which protect the public’s right to know what their politicians have said.
The president retorted today by accusing Twitter of bias against him and his party, and renewing his vow to regulate the site – after claiming yesterday that he would shut it down if he could.
‘Twitter is doing nothing about all of the lies and propaganda being put out by China or the Radical Left Democrat Party. They have targeted Republicans, Conservatives & the President of the United States,’ Trump said.
Twitter had put a fact-checking label on two of Trump’s tweets on Tuesday which claimed that mail-in voting in the 2020 election would be ‘substantially fraudulent’. Today’s red-flag is more a more severe measure because it actually hides the content of the tweet.
On May 29, Trump also signed an order seeking to scrap legal protections for social media firms, which he has accused of political bias.
The order could open Twitter, Facebook and Google up to lawsuits by diluting the legal protection which stops them from being liable for posts on their platforms, and which also allows them to moderate content.
Trump’s executive order said websites such as Twitter and Facebook ‘wield immense, if not unprecedented, power to shape the interpretation of public events’. Twitter said the order was a political move which attacked free speech.
Trump also praised Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for his criticism of Twitter’s decision to fact-check the tweets. ‘CEO Mark Zuckerberg is today criticizing Twitter,’ Trump wrote before sharing Zuckerberg’s statement.
‘We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this,’ Zuckerberg said in an interview with Fox News.
‘I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,’ he added.
‘Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.’
Zuckerberg has been accused by Democrats of pandering to the President with his comments about censorship so that Facebook will not be targeted, and has even seen protests from people within his own company.