Twitter flags Donald Trump’s ‘racist baby’ tweet as manipulated media

A tweet from President Trump of a video showing two toddlers running on a footpath has been flagged as “manipulated media” by Twitter.

Twitter has taken another swipe at President Donald Trump by adding a warning to his post about a “racist baby” today, saying the tweet contained manipulated media designed to mislead people.

Mr Trump tweeted a doctored video earlier today of two toddlers running down a footpath. The video had been altered to appear as if CNN had broadcasted it.

A fake banner on the video claimed the white child in the footage was a “racist baby probably a Trump voter” before showing another angle which showed the pair were just playing around.

The video went on to accuse “fake news” of stoking misinformation and that “America isn’t the problem”, it’s media manipulation. (The original version of the video went viral when it was posted last year).

In a move that is likely to inflame tensions between Mr Trump and the platform he uses multiple times a day to broadcast messages to his more than 82 million followers, Twitter added a disclaimer label to the post. It says the tweet contains “manipulated media”.

Its policies prohibit sharing videos, photos or audio that “have been deceptively altered or fabricated” to trick viewers and have the potential to cause harm.

pic.twitter.com/vnRpk0zl5y

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020

“You should be able to find reliable information on Twitter,” the warning reads. “That means understanding whether the content you see is real or fabricated and having the ability to find more context about what you see on Twitter.

“Therefore, we may label tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated. In addition, you may not share deceptively altered media on Twitter in ways that mislead or deceive people about the media’s authenticity where threats to physical safety or other serious harm may result.”

It was the first time Twitter used that particular label on one of Mr Trump’s posts, although in the past month it has added labels refuting the accuracy of some of the president’s messages and by cautioning that his posts glorified violence.

Mr Trump has previously struck back at Twitter for labelling his tweets, signing an executive order last month designed to chip away at legal protections for Twitter and other internet companies for what its users post.

Social media giant Facebook has also moved against the Trump administration today, taking down campaign ads for breaching its “policy on organised hate”.

The ads from Team Trump attacked what the Trump campaign called “dangerous mobs of far-left groups”. It featured an upside down triangle, and called for people to “send a united message” and “stand with President Trump against ANTIFA”.

This computer screen capture shows the now removed Trump campaign ad. Picture: Facebook/AFP

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the inverted triangle “is practically identical to that used by the Nazi regime to classify political prisoners in concentration camps”.

“We removed these posts and ads for violating our policy against organised hate,” Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in a statement to CNN Business. “Our policy prohibits using a banned hate group’s symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.”

Mr Stone confirmed to CNN the hate group Facebook was referring to was the Nazi party.

The ads called on Trump supporters to back the President’s previous calls to designate “Antifa” a terrorist organisation.

Bend The Arc: Jewish Action, said the symbol was used in concentration camps to mark and identify certain political prisoners.

The Trump campaign has since responded to criticism of the ad claiming the inverted red triangle is a “symbol widely used by Antifa”, linking media to Redbubble sites selling “Antifa water bottles” and other sites selling mason jars with red triangle decals.

The ADL reports some Antifa may have worn the red triangle, but described it as not being very common.

The President of the United States is campaigning for reelection using a Nazi concentration camp symbol.

Nazis used the red triangle to mark political prisoners and people who rescued Jews.

Trump & the RNC are using it to smear millions of protestors.

Their masks are off. pic.twitter.com/UzmzDaRBup

— Bend the Arc: Jewish Action (@jewishaction) June 18, 2020

The ads, which began running on Wednesday, gathered as many as 950,000 impressions from Mr Trump’s Facebook page, according to the Washington Post.

The same ad, run from Vice President Mike Pence’s page, gathered 500,000 impressions before being taken down on Thursday.

With Phoebe Loomes