A DOCTORED VIDEO which claims to show a black toddler running away from a white toddler and tweeted by US President Donald Trump has been flagged as “manipulated media” by Twitter.
The real video of the two toddlers has been circulating on social media for months now and shows the children embrace as friends and playing together.
But, in the version tweeted by Trump, it was edited in a way that suggested it was a CNN news bulletin showing the young black boy being chased by the young white boy.
It included a headline “terrified todler (sic) runs from racist baby”. The version of the video tweeted by Trump claims in a caption: “America is not the problem, fake news is”.
It was retweeted over 150,000 times and liked by more than 300,000 users.
Twitter labelled the video “manipulative media” and through its fact-checking function clarified that “in 2019, CNN reported on a viral video about a friendship between two toddlers”.
Trump has been feuding with the social media giant in recent weeks after it began flagging his tweets as containing inaccurate or misleading information.
It flagged Trump’s tweets about fraudulent postal ballots and redirected users to a factcheck of the claims.
Twitter also put a warning for users on another tweet he posted during the Black Lives Matter protests in the US, where the President invoked the civil rights era phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts”.
It said the tweet violated its policy on glorifying violence and “determined it may be in the public’s interest” to mute the tweet rather than fully delete it from its platform.
Trump recently signed an executive order to limit the legal protections for social media companies like Twitter over the content its users share on the platform.
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