President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign has released yet another attack on Twitter after the social media giant accused the campaign of posting “manipulated media,” and then proceeded to ignore the campaign’s appeals.
The Wednesday statement, obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller, pertains to a newly-announced policy from Twitter to mark certain content as “manipulated media” if it appears to be deceptively edited. A Trump campaign video of former Vice President Joe Biden was among the first to receive this label, but the campaign argued in a letter to Twitter that the video is unedited, and that other candidates have posted edited content unmolested. (RELATED: Trump Greeted With ‘Four More Years’ Chants At Black History Month Event)
The new statement in full, from Trump Campaign Communications Director Tim Murtaugh:
“As of Wednesday at 2pm ET, the Trump campaign has not received any response from Twitter to our letter sent Monday. This delay is wildly discouraging, given that Twitter has taken it upon itself to start policing video clips, yet has provided zero insight into their decision-making.”
“Three critical questions remain unanswered: Why was the Trump campaign’s video labeled “manipulated” when it was unaltered? Why has the doctored and deceptively edited Biden campaign video not received a “manipulated” label? Most importantly, would Joe Biden’s video still had been given a free pass if it had been posted after the new policy took effect?
In the middle of a presidential campaign, Twitter has a clear responsibility to inform everyone what their new enforcement standards are, and to equally apply those standards to all parties. Unless Twitter is seeking to become a tool for the Democrat Party to censor content they don’t like, they must answer the above questions as soon as possible.”
The video in question, posted by Trump Communications Director Dan Scavino and retweeted by Trump, cut off the end of Biden’s sentence but did not change any of his words. (RELATED: Joe Scarborough And Rick Wilson Get Fooled By Fake Trump Tweet)
Sleepy Joe????in St. Louis, Missouri today:
“We can only re-elect @realDonaldTrump.”#KAG2020LandslideVictory???????? pic.twitter.com/FT4q2MWfcD
— Dan Scavino (@DanScavino) March 8, 2020
The Biden campaign’s video appears to have connected two separate clips together to support the false claim that Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax.”
We can’t sit by and lose this country to Donald Trump. Today, we take it back — together.
Go vote: https://t.co/Hy8C4n0lUk pic.twitter.com/0YgyJFr9YR
— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 3, 2020
As referenced in Murtagh’s statement, Twitter says Biden’s video avoided the “manipulated media” tag because it was posted before March 5th, when the new policy went into effect. Twitter has not specified whether Biden’s video meets the standards for “manipulated media,” however.
While Twitter hasn’t responded to the campaign, it has provided limited updates to media outlets.
A Twitter spokesperson told the Daily Caller on Wednesday afternoon that “We’ve received the request and intend to respond.” It is the same statement Twitter released to media on Monday.
“Twitter shouldn’t be an enforcement arm of Joe Biden’s campaign strategy, but if they choose to police every video clip they must hold his own campaign to the same standard,” Trump campaign Rapid Response Director Andrew Clark told Fox News on Monday.