Social-Media
Twitter disables Trump retweet video after Linkin Park file copyright lawsuit
Twitter confirmed that President Trump's campaign video had been retweeted by a copyright complaint on Saturday. The Linkin Park song "In the End" was used in the backdrop of the film, which included pictures of President Trump and highlights from his inaugural address.
"Under our copyright policies, we respond to legitimate copyright grievances submitted to us by the copyright owner or their designated representative," the Twitter spokesperson said in a Sunday e-mail to The Verge.
The band tweeted Saturday that they were seeking a "cease and desist" and that they had not approved the use of their music in the video: "Linkin Park did not and does not support Trump."
Linkin Park did not and does not endorse Trump, nor authorize his organization to use any of our music. A cease and desist has been issued.
— LINKIN PARK (@linkinpark) July 19, 2020
The copyright notice has been added to the Lumen Project non-profit disclosure project.
White House Deputy Chief Policy Officer Dan Scavino posted the video on Friday night, and President Trump's official Account updated it on Saturday. The retweet is no longer available on the President's Twitter page, but Scavino's initial tweet is still live as of Sunday morning (less the video).
It's not the first time that Twitter has taken action against one of Trump's tweets about a trademark lawsuit. This month, a four-minute promotional video of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died on May 25 after a police officer had kneeled on his back, was destroyed. Facebook and Instagram deleted videos from their video sites. The president dubbed the removal "illegal" in a tweet, but Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded, "Not valid and not criminal. This was pulled out because we had a DMCA complaint from the copyright holder.
Trump's other posts were noted by Twitter where he said he backed away from his advertising policies. In May, the social media site added a tweet sticker that Trump warned "when the robbery begins, the shooting begins," as Twitter said the post violated his policies of glorifying crime. The President's June tweet, featuring a doctoral video, was labeled "manipulated media."
Trump's campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on Sunday.
