Twitter labels Trump's video attacking 'fake news' as fake
Continuing its stringent content moderation practices, Twitter has fact-checked a video tweeted by US President Donald Trump and labeled the same as 'manipulated media'. The action comes as the latest development in the ongoing row between the microblogging giant and the President, who has accused the former of trying to silence conservative voices. Here's more about it.
Video of two toddlers shared by Trump
On Thursday, the President shared a two-part video showing a black and a white child. In the first part, the black toddler is seen running away from the other one, with a CNN banner flashing "Terrified toddler runs from racist baby." Meanwhile, the second part shows that the kids were actually playing before declaring "America is not the problem, fake news is."
Here's the video
Twitter fact-checked the clip, marked it as 'manipulated media'
Soon after the President's tweet, Twitter flagged the video with a 'manipulated media' label, a tag largely intended for deepfakes and other deceptive videos. Clicking through the tag opens a fact-checking page that says multiple journalists have confirmed that CNN had covered the actual story of the boys' friendship and not the racist angle shown in the video.
Video carries fake CNN chyron, Twitter stated
"On Thursday, the president shared a version of the video which many journalists confirmed was edited and doctored with a fake CNN chyron," Twitter said in the "What you need to know" section of the page, with a link to the original CNN story.
Twitter said it added the label to provide more context
Following the action, a Twitter spokesperson told The Washington Post that, "This tweet has been labeled per our synthetic and manipulated media policy to give people more context." Notably, the doctored video carries a tag that signals it has been created by Carpe Donktum, a meme-making Trump fan whose account was suspended last year for creating a video that showed Trump assassinating media outlets.
This may further escalate Trump-Twitter row
Even though the manipulated media label, which comes amid racial tensions in the US, doesn't stop users from viewing the President's clip, the action could escalate the Twitter-Trump row. Last month, the site fact-checked the President's tweet about mail-in voting, prompting Trump to accuse the service of interfering with elections and sign an executive order restricting the legal protections given to social media firms.
