Media

CONFIRMED: Twitter’s Manipulated Media Rules Don’t Apply To Joe Biden

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Shelby Talcott Senior White House Correspondent
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Twitter will not label another advertisement from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as “manipulated media” even as it deceptively edits together two separate statements to make it look like President Donald Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax.”

The social media platform previously told the Daily Caller that a March advertisement from the Biden campaign including the false coronavirus claim would not be labeled as manipulated because of the date it was tweeted. Twitter’s policy began on March 5 and the old advertisement was tweeted out on March 3 – the policy, it said at the time, is not retroactive.

WATCH:

Biden’s newest advertisement was tweeted out on Sept. 15. Just like the March advertisement, this one was cut deceptively to suggest Trump said “coronavirus … and this is their new hoax” during a campaign rally in February.

“Thanks for your patience,” a Twitter spokesperson told the Daily Caller. “The referenced Tweet does not violate Twitter Rules at this time and will not be labeled.”

The president’s actual speech included over 100 words between “coronavirus” and “this is their new hoax.”

“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. You know that, right? Coronavirus. They’re politicizing it. We did one of the great jobs. You say, ‘How’s President Trump doing?’ They go, ‘Oh, not good, not good.’ They have no clue. They don’t have any clue. They can’t even count their votes in Iowa, they can’t even count. No they can’t. They can’t count their votes.

One of my people came up to me and said, ‘Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia. That didn’t work out too well. They couldn’t do it. They tried the impeachment hoax. That was on a perfect conversation. They tried anything, they tried it over and over, they’ve been doing it since you got in. It’s all turning, they lost, it’s all turning. Think of it. Think of it. And this is their new hoax. But you know, we did something that’s been pretty amazing. We’re 15 people [cases of coronavirus infection] in this massive country. And because of the fact that we went early, we went early, we could have had a lot more than that.”

The claim that Trump called the coronavirus a “hoax” has been fact-checked by several websites. The Washington Post gave it “Four Pinocchios” and Snopes reported that “despite creating some confusion with his remarks, Trump did not call the coronavirus itself a hoax.”

“The video makes it look like Trump called coronavirus ‘their new hoax,'” Politifact wrote. “In fact, there was nearly a full minute between when the president said ‘coronavirus’ and ‘hoax’ during a Feb. 28 rally in North Charleston, S.C.”

Twitter has slapped the “manipulated media” on videos from the Trump campaign multiple times. One, posted by Trump’s then-Communications Director Dan Scavino, cuts off the end of Biden’s sentence but does not edit or splice together any of his words.

A meme tweeted by Trump was also labeled as “manipulated media” by Twitter. It depicted an obviously fake CNN headline that said “TERRIFIED TODDLER RUNS FROM RACIST BABY.” The video, tweeted to mock the network, showed a white toddler chasing a black toddler. The video then cut to show the children running towards each other and hugging. (RELATED: Trump Calls On Twitter To Apply ‘Manipulated Media’ Label To An Edited Video Biden Sent)

Twitter’s latest ruling is likely to rankle conservatives, who have complained about biased treatment from the social media company.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey admitted it has likely been “too aggressive” in banning certain accounts during a discussion about how right-wing activists are treated by the platform. Dorsey’s comments came on Joe Rogan’s podcast in March after “learn to code” tweets were sent to specific journalists who had been recently laid off.

While taking harsh action against conservatives, Twitter took time before cracking down on Chinese officials distributing propaganda about coronavirus on the platform. Twitter has also defended its decision to allow Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei to post tweets pushing for genocide against the Israeli people.