Twitter flags video shared by Trump as 'manipulated'
For the first time since the introduction of new rules on misleading content, the microblogging service Twitter has labeled a post shared by U.S. President Donald Trump as «manipulated.».
Trump had disseminated a misleading video clip from a campaign event of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden via his Twitter channel. On Monday, Twitter added the label "manipulated media" to the video.
The video was an excerpt from one of Biden's election campaign speeches in the US state of Missouri. Referring to the intra-party rivalries within the US Democrats, Biden had said: "We can only re-elect Donald Trump if we really indulge in this self-destruction here".
Dan Scavino, the White House department head responsible for online communications, later published a video clip on Twitter in which Biden simply appeared to say: "We can only re-elect Donald Trump." Trump shared Scavino's post. By Monday, almost six million people had seen the video.
Scavino responded with a denial to the Twitter labeling. The video was not manipulated, he wrote.
Since last week, Twitter has been taking stronger action against so-called deepfakes and other manipulated content. The new guidelines provide for the removal or flagging of problematic videos during the US presidential election campaign. According to the company, the decision as to whether a post is merely flagged or deleted depends on the likelihood and severity of the potential damage caused by its dissemination. (SDA)
