Trump in fake news storm
Twitter flags President’s doctored clip of ‘racist baby’
A RACE-BAITING video posted on Twitter by President Donald Trump has been hit with a warning it was ‘fake news’.
The President shared a clip purporting to be from a CNN report, captioned: ‘Breaking news – terrified toddler runs from racist baby’, showing a young black boy being chased by a white toddler.
In reality, the clip was taken from an old viral video of the two toddlers running excitedly down the street and playing together.
In the latest escalation of the row between the social media platform and one of its most widely followed users, Twitter labelled Mr Trump’s message as ‘manipulated media’. The social media site then linked to a page that saw multiple journalists confirm the clip was doctored to make it look like it came from CNN, the US TV channel Mr Trump has labelled ‘fake news’ on numerous occasions. The edited clip used footage from a video last year of two toddlers reuniting and playing in the street.
After the manipulated portion, the minute-long video posted by Mr Trump cuts to the original video, before showing the message: ‘America is not the problem.
Fake news is.’ In a statement aimed at the President, CNN said: ‘CNN did cover this story – exactly as it happened. Just as we reported your positions on race (and poll numbers).
‘We’ll continue working with facts rather than tweeting fake videos that exploit innocent children. We invite you to do the same. Be better.’
It is the latest salvo in the battle between Mr Trump and tech companies, which he has accused of silencing conservative voices.
And it is the third time in a month Twitter has taken action against the President, who has 82million followers on the site.
Last month it added ‘fact-check’ warnings to two of his tweets on postal voting, providing evidence contradicting the President’s claims. And in the midst of anger over the death of George Floyd, it hid a Trump tweet where he threatened ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’, saying it glorified violence.
In response, Mr Trump vowed to create new regulations to rein in social media companies.