Trump Falls Afoul of New Twitter Policy

Altered video of Joe Biden was flagged as 'manipulated media'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 9, 2020 5:21 AM CDT
Updated Mar 9, 2020 6:39 AM CDT
Twitter Flags Altered Biden Video Shared by Trump
President Trump's motorcade travels to the Trump International Golf Club, Sunday, March 8, 2020, in West Palm Beach, Fla.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A video retweeted by President Trump's account over the weekend was the first of the president's tweets to fall afoul of a new Twitter policy. The video of Joe Biden—originally tweeted by Dan Scavino, the White House social media director who oversees Trump's Twitter account—edited remarks Joe Biden made Saturday to make it seem as if the Democratic candidate had endorsed Trump for re-election, the Washington Post reports. Twitter flagged the altered video as "manipulated media" under a policy against fake or misleading videos it introduced last month. In the video shared by Trump and Scavino, Biden seems to stumble over his words before saying, "Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump."

In the full speech Biden made in Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday, he said, "Excuse me. We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here. It’s gotta be a positive campaign." Facebook did not flag or remove the video, which angered Biden's campaign, the New York Times reports. "Facebook’s malfeasance when it comes to trafficking in blatantly false information is a national crisis in this respect," said Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz. He accused Facebook of "putting profit above not just our country, but every country" and of serving "as one of the world’s most effective mediums for the spread of vile lies." (More President Trump stories.)

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