Twitter Blocks Donald Trump’s Campaign Video Tribute to George Floyd

Twitter has disabled a video tribute to George Floyd posted by the Trump campaign’s official account over a copyright claim, marking the latest incident as tensions continue to rise between the social media platform and the president. Shared Wednesday, the nearly four-minute-long video, titled “Healing, not Hatred,” features a montage of photos and videos of Floyd, peaceful protests, officers hugging demonstrators, and scenes of burning buildings and vandalism as piano music plays in the background. A speech from president Donald Trump, in which he calls Floyd’s murder a “grave tragedy” and says his memory is being “dishonored by rioters, looters, and anarchists,” also plays in the background.

By Thursday morning, however, the video had been taken down and replaced with a label reading, “This media has been disabled in response to a claim by the copyright owner.” In a statement obtained by CBS News, Twitter said, “per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives.” The company did not, however, say who made the complaint.

Andrew Clark, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, responding by stating the move was “yet another reminder that Twitter is making up the rules as they go along,” The Hill reports. He added how “Twitter has repeatedly failed to explain why their rules seem to only apply to the Trump campaign but not to others” and that “censoring out the president’s important message of unity around the George Floyd protests is an unfortunate escalation of this double standard.” Meanwhile, the Trump campaign’s official Twitter account responded in a scathing tweet in which they said Twitter is “censoring this uplifting and unifying message” from the president and directed people to the president” YouTube channel, where the video is still available for viewing on YouTube.

The move comes just a week after Twitter placed a “public interest notice” warning label on one of the president’s tweets, which, according to the platform, glorified violence. The tweet in question included the phrase, “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” Those exact words had been used more than five decades ago by controversial former Miami police chief Walter E. Headley, with Twitter, in its notice, stating “this tweet violates our policies regarding the glorification of violence based on the historical context of the last line, its connection to violence, and the risk it could inspire similar actions today.” Earlier in May, the platform had added a fact check to one of the president’s tweets.