A Twitter logo is displayed on a mobile phone with a President Trumps picture shown in the background on May 27, 2020, in Arlington, Virginia. (AFP photo)
Twitter added a ‘manipulated media label on a video posted on US President Donald Trumps 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 CNNs website last year.
The clip shared in Trumps 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."
"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.
The move marks the third time Twitter has taken action against Trump in a month.
The move is likely to reignite tensions between Trump and the social media service, which the president uses multiple times a day to broadcast messages to his more than 82 million followers.
Twitter has been under fierce scrutiny from the Trump administration since it fact-checked Trumps 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 so-called 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.
Twitter has faced criticism for being inconsistent in its moderation. Critics have said that Twitter is too lenient with the president, who often tweets provocative messages.
Critics have also said that Twitter has moved slowly on moderation, allowing harassment and misinformation to flourish on its platform.
(Source: Agencies)
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