Social media giants Facebook and Twitter have declined US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s request to delete a video of her tearing up her copy of Trump’s speech at the State of the Union Address on Tuesday.
The speaker’s office demanded that Facebook remove the video posted online by President Donald Trump, which was edited to make it appear like she ripped the speech even as Trump saluted a Tuskegee airman in the audience.
The video, labeled “Powerful American stories ripped to shreds by Nancy Pelosi,” was posted on both Trump’s Facebook and Twitter before 6 p.m. Thursday. Trump has more than 72 million followers.
Facebook and Twitter in response, refused to delete the videos, citing different reasons.
Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman said “I can confirm for you that the video doesn’t violate our policies.”
Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, then posted a link to a criticism of the video Friday afternoon, writing “The latest fake video of Speaker Pelosi is deliberately designed to mislead and lie to the American people, and every day that these platforms refuse to take it down is another reminder that they care more about their shareholders’ interests than the public’s interests.”
Twitter in responseto Hammill said: “Sorry, are you suggesting the President didn’t make those remarks and the Speaker didn’t rip the speech?”
Hammill fired back: “What planet are you living on? This is deceptively altered. Take it down.”
Twitter, this week announced a new set of rules for its users, but will only take effect from March 5.
“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 the media’s authenticity and to provide additional context.”.. Twitter announced.
In less than 48 hours since the video was posted, the video has received over 2.5 million views, and reached almost 6 million people .
