Donald Trump Original Video Tribute to George Floyd (blocked by Facebook, Twitter & Instagram)

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram has banned a Trump campaign video tribute to George Floyd over a copyright claim, in a move that adds to tensions between the social media platform and the U.S. president, one of its most widely followed users.

The company put a label on a video posted by the @TeamTrump account that said, "This media has been disabled in response to a claim by the copyright owner." The video was still up on U.S. President Donald Trump's YouTube channel and includes pictures of Floyd, whose death sparked widespread protests, at the start.

"Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives," Twitter said in a statement. It did not say who made the complaint.

The three minute and 45 second clip is a montage of photos and videos of peaceful marches and police officers hugging protesters interspersed with some scenes of burning buildings and vandalism, set to gentle piano music and Trump speaking.

Last month, Twitter placed fact-check warnings on two tweets from Trump's own account that called mail-in ballots "fraudulent" and predicted problems with the November U.S. elections. Under the tweets, there is now a link reading "Get the facts about mail-in ballots" that guides users to a Twitter "moments" page with fact checks and news stories about Trump's unsubstantiated claims.

It also demoted and placed a stronger warning on a third Trump tweet about Minneapolis protests that read, in part, that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts." Twitter said that the tweet had violated the platform's rules by glorifying violence.

Trump responded by threatening to retaliate against social media companies.

Last year, Twitter also removed a Trump tweet that featured a doctored Nickelback music video clip that took aim at former Vice-President Joe Biden, after receiving copyright complaints.

Twitter and @Jack are censoring this uplifting and unifying message from President Trump after the George Floyd tragedy.

Twitter hides Trump tweet for 'glorifying violence'

Twitter has hidden a tweet by President Donald Trump from his profile, saying it violates rules about glorifying violence.

It did the same hours later when the official White House account tweeted a copy of the president's words.

Instead of being deleted, both tweets can be viewed by clicking on a prominent warning.

It says that "Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible."

This is the latest twist in an escalating row between Twitter and the White House.

The US president finds himself in unexpected company alongside other world leaders whose tweets have been censored.

In February 2019, Twitter had a tweet by Iranian Leader Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei removed after it appeared to threaten author Salman Rushdie.

Also last year, several accounts associated with Cuban President Raul Castro and members of his government were suspended, citing policy violations.

Mr Trump was tweeting about the US city of Minneapolis, which has seen consecutive nights of protests following the death of a black man in police custody.

The president said he would "send in the National Guard", and followed that up with a warning that "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

That second tweet was hidden by Twitter for "glorifying violence".

Twitter's policy of adding a warning to, rather than deleting, tweets that break its rules when it comes to major public figures was announced in mid-2019. But the social network has never used it on Mr Trump - nor deleted any of his tweets before.

"This is the bravest and riskiest thing I've ever seen Twitter - or any social media giant - do," said Carl Miller, from the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at UK-based think-tank Demos.

"This pours rocket fuel over the online-harm-versus-free-speech debate. Online content policy doesn't get more incendiary than this."

The same post remains unaltered on Facebook, without any warning attached.

On Friday, the president sought to clear up the tweets by saying he was misunderstood.

"Looting leads to shooting, and that's why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night - or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot," he tweeted.

Facebook and Twitter took down a Trump campaign video over copyright concerns
It’s not unusual. But the Trump campaign sees it as an escalation.

Twitter disabled a video this week on a post by the Trump campaign, while Facebook and Instagram removed posts with the video on Trump campaign accounts. The move could escalate the companies’ tensions with the president, whose tweets have recently been subject to warning labels from the company and whose Facebook post remain controversial. In this instance, however, the takedowns have happened for a more traditional reason.

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