Twitter used its 'manipulated media' feature for the first time to flag a tweet re-tweeted by US President Donald Trump. The tweet that has been flagged is an edited clip of Trump's political rival and Democratic front-runner Joe Biden. The clip was originally tweeted by White House's social media director Dan Scavino.
What is the flagged tweet about?
In an edited clip shared by Scavino, Biden can be heard saying "We can only re-elect Donald Trump". In the actual quote made at a political rally in Kansas City, Missouri, Joe Biden said, "We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here."
Twitter flagged the tweet as 'manipulated media', the Washington Post reported. But the clip has already been watched about 6 million times.
What is Twitter's manipulated media policy?
Twitter recently updated its 'synthetic and manipulated media policy', according to which, "you may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm. In addition, we may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context".
This allows Twitter to flag tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated. Also, users are barred from sharing deceiving media that have the potential to cause threats to physical safety or other serious harm.
Politicians often fall prey to such misinformation campaigns. This tactic is often employed by politicians' social media team to malign adversaries and further their political interests.
Trump shared an edited clip from his State of the Union speech, which appeared to show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping Trump's speech, just as he saluted a Tuskegee airman in the audience.
In reality, Pelosi tore Trump's speech only after he had completed it.
