‘Manipulated media’: Twitter applies new label to edited video of Biden
Twitter applied its new “manipulated media“ label for the first time Sunday on an edited video of Joe Biden that a White House official posted and that President Donald Trump retweeted.
On Saturday, the White House social media director, Dan Scavino, tweeted a video of the 2020 Democratic candidate telling supporters in Missouri, “We cannot win this re-election, excuse me, we can only re-elect Donald Trump.”
By the end of the night, Trump had shared the video twice, writing, “I agree with Joe!” It also got a retweet from the Trump campaign manager, Brad Parscale.
However, the Scavino tweet — which was viewed almost 5 million times as of Sunday evening — had cut off the rest of the sentence.
“We can only re-elect Donald Trump if, in fact, we get engaged in this circular firing squad here,” the former vice president had said. “It’s got to be a positive campaign, so join us.”
The edited video appeared as opponents are raising questions about Biden’s cognitive ability and whether the 77-year-old candidate has dementia — a new line of attack that has been amplified by some backers of Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the former vice president’s rival for the Democratic nomination. The Trump campaign has made Biden's verbal stumbles and gaffes a focal point of its messaging.
On Sunday afternoon, reports emerged that Twitter had applied its “manipulated media“ label to the video. However, a spokesperson noted that the label was not currently showing up in Tweet detail, though it was visible in the timeline. The platform is working on a fix.
Just in: Twitter applied its new manipulated media label for the first time to a deceptively edited video of Joe Biden. It was shared by White House social media director Dan Scavino, and retweeted by the president. pic.twitter.com/PggcCwMNkx
— Cat Zakrzewski (@Cat_Zakrzewski) March 8, 2020
Twitter’s new policy, which went into effect on Thursday, defines manipulated posts as any photo, video or audio that has been “significantly altered or fabricated.” The company will remove the media if it is found likely to “cause serious harm,” and, regardless, at least label tweets as erroneous or doctored. In some cases, Twitter will also offer additional context about the video.
The policy coincides with a recent rise of doctored videos of politicians: There was the edited video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, making her seem as though she was drunkenly slurring words. And there was a different Biden clip edited to suggest he made a racist comment.
Alexandra Levine contributed to this report.
