Twitter bans account behind doctored video shared by Trump
Decision is 2nd action related to Trump's tweets in 24 hours
Twitter has permanently suspended the account of a right-wing online personality for violating its copyright policy, a week after he posted a doctored video of toddlers that was then shared by United States President Donald Trump.
The move was the second action Twitter took related to Trump's tweets within 24 hours. On Tuesday it hid a post from Trump threatening "serious force" against protesters in Washington D.C., which Twitter said violated its policy on threatening violence.
Twitter has repeatedly clashed with Trump since it began challenging his posts in May. The president has threatened to change laws on social media after Twitter labelled one of his tweets about postal voting inaccurate and hid another about looting, which Twitter said fomented violence.
Last week, Twitter put a "manipulated media" designation on a tweet from Trump that showed a doctored news clip from CNN. The original clip was of a viral video showing Black and white toddlers who were best friends. The doctored version added a misspelled banner flashing: "Terrified todler runs from racist baby."
The doctored video was first posted by Carpe Donktum, an account known to support Trump. Twitter said early on Wednesday it had suspended the account indefinitely for "repeated violations" of its policy on posting copyrighted material.
"I received a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown order this morning for that video, and a few hours later a suspension letter," Donktum posted on Locals, another digital content platform.
Noting that Twitter did not provide a way to get the suspended account back, "I assume they intend this to be final and permanent," the post said.
Donktum's account was revoked for eight days last July, over a video depicting Trump as a cowboy attacking CNN journalist Jim Acosta.