Biden video retweeted by Trump labeled 'manipulated media' by Twitter under new policy as it misleads people
President Donald Trump retweeted a video on Saturday that appeared to show former Vice President Joe Biden endorsing the Republican. The clip, however, has now been branded as "manipulated media" in a first by the popular micro-blogging site.
Biden, the 2020 Democratic frontrunner, was not endorsing Trump in the original video but was cautioning his voters against his potential second term.
The manipulated Biden video was initially tweeted by Dan Scavino, assistant to the president and director of social media at the White House, who wrote: "Sleepy Joe in St. Louis, Missouri today: 'We can only re-elect @realDonaldTrump.'"
Scavino, however, used the line of context from the full statement given by Biden in Kansas City, Missouri. Biden had said: "We can only reelect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here."
The doctored clip had received more than 5.2 million views by the time Twitter deemed it "manipulated content."
The technology giant's action came amidst the enforcement of a new set of rules by the company which warned the users stating: "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 their authenticity and to provide additional context."
Scavino, however, attempted to defend himself, saying that the video was not manipulated but was simply "shortened." "The video was NOT manipulated," he wrote in a tweet.
Scavino then proceeded to retweet messages from his supporters, including one user who said: "This video was simply shortened. This means every single clip on Twitter is 'Manipulated'."
While another said: "Twitter is setting such a dangerous precedent here. By this logic all 'clips' on the platform are 'Manipulated',' Scavino agreed: 'Yes they are ... 100%!"
Twitter, under its new policies, which came into effect on Friday, explained to its users that they should be able to find reliable information on Twitter. "That means understanding whether the content you see is real or fabricated and having the ability to find more context about what you see on Twitter."
"Therefore, we may label Tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated," the company said. "In addition, you may not share deceptively altered media on Twitter in ways that mislead or deceive people about the media's authenticity where threats to physical safety or other serious harm may result."
Twitter, however, flagged the manipulated video only after 18 hours and the label was not visible for everyone searching for the tweet, reports state. The micro-blogging site later confirmed that the label was only appearing for those coming across the post in their news feed.