Washington - Twitter Inc added a "manipulated media" label on a video posted on U.S. President
Donald Trump's Twitter feed on Thursday that showed a doctored
news clip with a mis-spelled banner flashing "Terrified todler
runs from racist baby."
The original video, which went viral on social media in
2019, showed a black toddler and a white toddler running towards
each other and hugging. It was published with the headline "These two toddlers are showing us what real-life besties look like" on CNN's website last year.
The clip shared in Trump's tweet first shows the part where one of those
toddlers is seen running ahead of the other. At one point the
banner reads: "Racist baby probably a Trump voter".
The tweeted video, with more than 7.7 million views and
125,000 retweets, then goes on to show the original video and
concludes : "America is not the problem. Fake news is."
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
"We may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated
media to help people understand their authenticity and to
provide additional context," Twitter says in an explanation of
its policies posted on its website.
Twitter 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 president, who has battled Twitter and other tech
companies over alleged censorship of conservative voices on
social media platforms, said in late May he would propose
legislation to potentially scrap or weaken the law shielding
internet companies, in an extraordinary attempt to regulate
outlets where he has been criticized.