Twitter Removes Trump Campaign’s George Floyd Tribute

President Trump on Thursday posted a campaign tweet on Twitter with a four-minute tribute video to George Floyd, narrated by the president.

Floyd died on Memorial Day after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.

In the video, Trump said of the protesters, “we hear their pleas.” The video quickly got more than a million views

Then Twitter took took it down.

“This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner,” Twitter wrote.

In the video, Trump laments the “grave tragedy” of Floyd’s death as iamges of Floyd and peaceful protesters are shown.

“Later in the video, the president warns about ‘violence and anarchy’ from ‘radical left-wing groups’ over images of riots and looting. He also describes the vast majority of law enforcement officials as ‘devoted public servants’ as the video shows images of police officers hugging civilians and people cleaning up graffiti and garbage in the streets,” The Hill reported.

Donald Trump Jr.

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This X 1000!!! https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1268295979331133445 …

Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022)

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We are working toward a more just society, but that means building up, not tearing down.

Joining hands, not hurling fists.

Standing in solidarity, not surrendering to hostility.

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5:31 AM - Jun 4, 2020

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Twitter never explained to the campaign what “copyright” was violated, drawing the ire of Team Trump.

“This incident is yet another reminder that Twitter is making up the rules as they go along,” said Andrew Clark, a spokesman for the Trump campaign. “From the dubious removal of the hilarious Nickelback video to capricious fact checks and manipulated media labels to questionable claims of copyright, Twitter has repeatedly failed to explain why their rules seem to only apply to the Trump campaign but not to others. Censoring out the president’s important message of unity around the George Floyd protests is an unfortunate escalation of this double standard.”

“A Twitter spokesperson told The Hill they received a complaint from a copyright owner of at least one of the images in the video, although it’s unclear which one. Harvard University’s Lumen Database, a third-party research group Twitter uses to study cease and desist letters, reviewed the complaint and found it to be valid under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),” The Hill wrote.

Trump has been in battle with the uber-liberal social media platform. Last week, Twitter tacked on a fact-check to one of the president’s claims about mail voting fraud. The president fired back with an executive order directing the federal government to look into stripping some of the legal protections afforded to social media platforms.