Twitter comes under fire for not taking down ‘deceptively edited’ video of Trump

Twitter has come under fire for not taking down a ‘deceptively edited’ video that made Donald Trump look ‘disoriented’ before the president walked toward Marine One on the White House lawn. 

Twitter user Tom Joseph shared the video on Sunday with the caption: ‘Trump is lost [and] disoriented here. His mind goes blank and he doesn’t remember what he’s supposed to do next. 

‘He’s deep into his degenerative neurological disease — Frontotemporal dementia — mindlessly lumbering and zigzagging in the grass towards a puddle.’

The video had a ‘manipulated media’ tag added to it by Twitter on Monday, but was allowed to go viral with 2.7 million views, according to Fox News. 

It has since been deleted or removed. 

Twitter has come under fire for not taking down a ‘deceptively edited’ video that made Donald Trump look ‘disoriented’ before the president walked toward Marine One on the White House lawn

Several journalists pointed out that the video, which is said to be from August 2019, lacked context. In the clip, Trump is seen walking on the South Lawn at the White House where he was preparing to meet First Lady Melania Trump (pictured)

Several journalists pointed out that the video, which is said to be from August 2019, lacked context. In the clip, Trump is seen walking on the South Lawn at the White House where he was preparing to meet First Lady Melania Trump (pictured)

Several journalists pointed out that the video, which is said to be from August 2019, lacked context. 

In the clip, Trump is seen walking on the South Lawn at the White House where he was preparing to meet First Lady Melania Trump.

He is seen pointing at a puddle in the altered version, but the real version of the video shows Trump alerting First Lady Melania Trump to the puddle so that she wouldn’t step in the water.  

ABC News reporter, Will Steakin, tweeted on Monday that Trump ‘was simply walking back to wait for FLOTUS here’.

‘This false tweet has over 23K retweets and the deceptively edited video has over 2 million views,’ Steakin added. 

Over the past few months, Twitter has flagged tweets from President Trump. 

One of the most controversial incidents came when Twitter flagged one of the president’s tweet because it was ‘glorifying violence’. 

‘These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!’ the tweet read.

That tweet was shared by Trump just days after Floyd died under the knee of a white Minneapolis cop.  

In July, Twitter continued its crackdown on Trump’s account by removing a meme tweeted by the president after the New York Times filed a copyright complaint over the use of the photo. 

ABC News reporter, Will Steakin, tweeted on Monday that Trump 'was simply walking back to wait for FLOTUS here'. Steakin added: 'This false tweet has over 23K retweets and the deceptively edited video has over 2 million views'

ABC News reporter, Will Steakin, tweeted on Monday that Trump ‘was simply walking back to wait for FLOTUS here’. Steakin added: ‘This false tweet has over 23K retweets and the deceptively edited video has over 2 million views’

Trump posted an image of himself that was taken by NYT photographer Damon Winter for a feature on the then-presidential candidate in 2015.

The black and white picture showed a smirking Trump sitting down while pointing at the camera, but was turned into a meme with bold white text saying: ‘In reality, they’re not after me they’re after you. I’m just in the way.’

In August, Twitter hid one of Trump’s tweets behind a notice that warned users that the message violated company rules against dissuading people from voting. 

Trump tweeted at the time: ‘So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!’

An incident similar to the recent doctored video occurred in August when Twitter flagged a clip of an interview with Joe Biden and activist Ady Barkan. 

Republican Rep Steve Scalise tweeted the video that manipulated Barkan’s voice in the interview with the Democratic presidential nominee to make it sound like Biden agreed to defund the police.

Twitter slapped the video with a ‘manipulated media’ tag after Barkan accused Scalise, the House minority whip from Louisiana, of doctoring his words.

In the original interview recorded in early July, Barkan, who uses a computerized artificial voice due to his amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), asks Biden if he agrees ‘that we can redirect some of the funding’ to public safety and mental health services.

Biden replies: ‘Yes, absolutely.’ 

A similar incident occurred in August when Twitter flagged a video of an interview with Joe Biden and activist Ady Barkan

A similar incident occurred in August when Twitter flagged a video of an interview with Joe Biden and activist Ady Barkan 

The screen grab above shows Barkan's question in the original interview

The screen grab above show's the doctored version of Barkan's question in the video shared by Rep Steve Scalise

The screen grabs above show Barkan’s question in the original interview (left) compared with the version that was doctored in the video shared by Rep Steve Scalise (right)

The clip inserted the words ‘for police’ into Barkan’s question using the same computerized voice. 

‘No police. Mob rule. Total chaos. That’s the result of the Democrat agenda. Ask yourself: Is this what you want in your town next?’ Scalise wrote alongside the video.  

Barkan responded to the post soon after and called for Scalise to take the video down. 

‘These are not my words. I have lost my ability to speak, but not my agency or my thoughts,’ he tweeted. 

‘You and your team have doctored my words for your own political gain. Please remove this video immediately. You owe the entire disability community an apology.’ 

Scalise ultimately took down the video but his office insisted that the video accurately portrayed Biden’s stance on police reform.