Twitter Removes Trumps Tribute to George Floyd

Twitter removed a video tribute to George Floyd posted by the Trump reelection campaign.

What We Know:

• The Team Trump account tweeted a four minute long video called “Healing Not Hatred” that was narrated by a speech the president gave a few days after George Floyd was killed.
• In the video, the President is heard regretting the “grave trgedy” of Floyd’s death while images of Floyd and peaceful protesters mourn his death.
• As the video continues, the president transitions to warning viewers about “violence and anarchy” from “radical left-wing groups” over images of riots and looting. The President also described most of all law enforcment officials as “devoted public servents” and video shows images of police officers hugging civilians and people cleaning graffiti and garbage in the streets.
• After the Tump video was retweeted by Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr, Twitter disabled the video and replaced it with a message that said: “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner” but left the tweet up.

We are working toward a more just society, but that means building up, not tearing down.

Joining hands, not hurling fists.

Standing in solidarity, not surrendering to hostility. pic.twitter.com/mp8957czvh

— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) June 3, 2020

• Twitter said they received a complaint from a copyright owner of at least one of the images used in the video although they didn’t specify which one. A third-party research group called Lumen Database reviewed the complaint and found it to be valid under the Digtial Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA is one of the few sections of the law that social media platforms can be held liable for if they do not remove infringing content.
• A spokesman for The Trump campaign, Andrew Clark said “This incident is yet another reminder that Twitter is making up the rules as they go along. From the dubious removal of the hilarious Nickelback video to capricious fact checks and manipulated media labels to questionable claims of copyright, Twitter has repeatedly failed to explain why their rules seem to only apply to the Trump campaign but not to others. Censoring out the president’s important message of unity around the George Floyd protests is an unfortunate escalation of this double standard”.

This is not the first time Twitter has removed content posted by Trump due to copyright reasons. This takedown comes shortly after a series of much more controversial decisions by Twitter to limit the reach of Trump’s posts because they didn’t pass a fact-check or glorified violence. This incident is the latest development in the president’s war with social media companies.