Twitter Hits Donald Trump’s Fake CNN Video Tweet With A ‘Manipulated Media’ Flag
President Donald Trump tweeted a doctored video of a black toddler running away from a white toddler on a city sidewalk on Thursday night with a fake CNN breaking news chyron at the bottom along with the headline “Terrified Todler [sic] Runs From Racist Baby.” A while later, Twitter added a blue label that had a circled exclamation point before the words “Manipulated Media.” The flag linked to a page with relevant information about how the video had been changed. Several Twitter users commented on the site’s addition to the president’s tweet.
The video shows a scene of the kids running away from each other. Another headline popped up that claimed “Racist Baby Probably A Trump Voter,” and then a black screen popped up with the white text, “What Actually Happened.” The next scene featured the two children hugging, and then turning around to run together. Another black screen featured the words “America Is Not The Problem. Fake News Is. If You See Something, Say Something. Only You Can Prevent Fake News Dumpster Fires.”
The label is not the first Twitter put on President Trump’s tweet. In late May, the popular social media platform drew the president’s ire when it placed a fact check label on his tweets about mail-in voting. Then, a few days later, it hid a tweet from Trump that it said glorified violence.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
Trump does not appear to have responded to the flag at this time. After Twitter applied a fact-check label to one of his tweets, Trump signed an executive order about social media after vehemently speaking out against the social media platform. Presumably, he is not happy when Twitter adds a warning to something tweeted from his account.
Although Trump didn’t respond right away, other users did notice the addition and called the president out once again for having one of his tweets flagged. CNN Chief WH Correspondent Jim Acosta was one of those who noted what had happened. He tweeted a screenshot of the original tweet and noted what Twitter added without further comment.
However, others pointed to the flag and accused Trump of being the one spreading fake news. They also accused him of exploiting the toddlers in the video for political gain. Others wondered when the president would notice and have a meltdown about it. A few reminded everybody that the video Trump tweeted was meant to be satire, and they said that perhaps the point of the doctored clip was to reveal how easy it is to manipulate headlines and videos.
