Twitter adds 'manipulated media' label to Trump's 'racist baby' tweet

President Donald Trump looks at his phone during a roundtable with governors on the reopening of America's small businesses, in the State Dining Room of the White House. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

President Donald Trump looks at his phone during a roundtable with governors on the reopening of America's small businesses, in the State Dining Room of the White House. Picture: Alex Brandon/AP

Published Jun 19, 2020

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Washington - Twitter Inc added a "manipulated media" label on a video posted on U.S. President

Donald Trump's Twitter feed on Thursday that showed a doctored

news clip with a mis-spelled banner flashing "Terrified todler

runs from racist baby."

The original video, which went viral on social media in

2019, showed a black toddler and a white toddler running towards

each other and hugging. It was published with the headline  "These two toddlers are showing us what real-life besties look like" on CNN's website last year.

The clip shared in Trump's tweet first shows the part where one of those

toddlers is seen running ahead of the other. At one point the

banner reads: "Racist baby probably a Trump voter".

The tweeted video, with more than 7.7 million views and

125,000 retweets, then goes on to show the original video and

concludes : "America is not the problem. Fake news is."

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

"We may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated

media to help people understand their authenticity and to

provide additional context," Twitter says in an explanation of

its policies posted on its  website.

Twitter has been under fierce scrutiny from the Trump

administration since it fact-checked Trump's tweets about

unsubstantiated claims of mail-in voting fraud. It also labeled

a Trump tweet about protests in Minneapolis as "glorifying

violence."

The president, who has battled Twitter and other tech

companies over alleged censorship of conservative voices on

social media platforms, said in late May he would propose

legislation to potentially scrap or weaken the law shielding

internet companies, in an extraordinary attempt to regulate

outlets where he has been criticized. 

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