Twitter Removes Donald Trump Tweet With Linkin Park Song After Band Claims Copyright Violation
Twitter has pulled a tweet from President Donald Trump after the band whose music is featured in it — Linkin Park — issued a copyright claim, Variety reported.
On Friday, Dan Scavino, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and Director of Social Media, tweeted a Trump re-election campaign video that included the song “In The End” by rock band Linkin Park. Trump later retweeted the video, complete with the song.
On Saturday night, the band’s management group, Machine Shop Entertainment, formally requested the removal of the video under U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act law, effectively claiming that the Trump administration was using the song without permission.
Twitter then pulled the video. Scavino’s tweet now bears the message, “The media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.” Similarly, Trump’s retweet of Scavino’s post also bears the same message.
Twitter confirmed to The Verge that the social media platform had removed a video in response to a copyright complaint.
In a tweet of their own, Linkin Park confirmed that they demanded that their song not be associated with Trump.
“Linkin Park did not and does not endorse Trump, nor authorize his organization to use any of our music. A cease and desist has been issued,” the tweet read.
Linkin Park’s late lead singer, Chester Bennington, had been vocally anti-Trump when he was alive.
“Trump is a greater threat to the USA than terrorism!! We have to take back our voices and stand for what we believe in,” he wrote a few months before he died.
It isn’t just Linkin Park who appears to have had an issue with the song being used. The song the Trump campaign used is actually a cover of a song originally performed by Tommee Profitt featuring Fleurie and Jung Youth. In a statement, Jung Youth praised the fact that the video was taken down.
“Anyone who knows me knows I stand firmly against bigotry and racism,” he tweeted.
This is not the first time Trump has tweeted a video that was later pulled for violating copyright. As The Guardian reported last year, Trump tweeted a video that included music by the Canadian rock band Nickelback. The band complained, and Twitter took the video down.
The matter of Trump and his campaign using music without the artists’ authorization is a problem that pops up from time to time. As previously reported by The Inquisitr, rock star Neil Young publicly blasted Trump for using his music at his South Dakota rally over the Fourth of July weekend.
