Twitter labels video of Biden retweeted by Trump as "manipulated media"
Washington — Twitter has labeled a truncated clip of Joe Biden posted by a White House official and shared by President Trump as "manipulated media," employing the designation under a new policy for the first time.
The 13-second video was first posted to the platform Saturday by Dan Scavino, the White House director of social media, and shows Biden at a campaign event in Missouri on Friday saying, "We can only reelect Donald Trump."
But the clip posted by Scavino cuts off Biden's full remarks, in which he said, "We can only reelect Donald Trump if, in fact, we get engaged in this circular firing squad here. It's got to be a positive campaign."
Mr. Trump retweeted the video shared by Scavino on Saturday evening.
Twitter confirmed the tweet was labeled "manipulated media" based on the company's new "synthetic and manipulated media" policy, which took effect Thursday.
Under the policy, Twitter says it may label tweets that include videos, audio and images that have been "deceptively altered or fabricated" and prohibit users from sharing that media "in ways that that mislead or deceive people about the media's authenticity where threats to physical safety or other serious harm may result."
A Twitter representative acknowledged the "manipulated media" label was not visible when Scavino's tweet is expanded, though the company is working to address that. The designation is, however, visible when the tweet appears in a user's timeline.
Scavino took to Twitter to protest the "manipulated media" label, tweeting late Sunday night that the "video was NOT manipulated." Mr. Trump retweeted that message, too.
Twitter's move comes as social media companies employ new tools to combat the spread of misinformation online, particularly in the run up to the 2020 presidential election.
Supporters of the president have taken aim at Biden following his strong performance on Super Tuesday last week, which catapulted him to first place in the national delegate race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Trump often refers to Biden as "sleepy Joe," and both his supporters and those backing Senator Bernie Sanders for president allege Biden is unfit for office.
Gabrielle Ake contributed to this report.
