‘Are you suggesting the President didn’t make those remarks and the Speaker didn’t rip the speech?’…
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Liberals are furious with a diced-up video shared by President Trump that shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping a copy of Trump’s State of the Union address.
The video was edited to show Pelosi tearing up Trump’s speech after each introduction of his guests in the Senate gallery — many of them American heroes — or following his announcement of great economic news for groups of citizens whose votes Democrat candidates hope to earn in November.
The point of the video, created by conservative group Turning Point USA, was to show that Pelosi’s disrespectful actions “ripped to shreds” the “powerful American stories” Trump shared during her address.
Pelosi’s chief of staff, Drew Hammill, demanded Twitter and Facebook remove the video, and when the social media platforms refused, Hammill claimed the companies “care more about their shareholders’ interests than the public’s interests.”
The American people know that the President has no qualms about lying to them – but it is a shame to see Twitter and Facebook, sources of news for millions, do the same. https://t.co/OatHIOamsD
— Drew Hammill (@Drew_Hammill) February 7, 2020
Several Democratic members of Congress also demanded Twitter remove the video, despite the fact that it does not technically violate the platform’s rules.
This video is doctored. It has been up, and pinned to the President’s page, for nearly a day.
Trump posted it to deceive Americans about @SpeakerPelosi‘s actions and record.
If I posted a doctored video it would be a clear violation House Rules.@Twitter should take this down. https://t.co/zTc2OHntQ5
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) February 7, 2020
Hey @Twitter, this video is clearly edited in a way that’s intended to mislead viewers. You should take it down. https://t.co/agXJlvRirf
— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline) February 7, 2020
.@Twitter must take this misleading video about @SpeakerPelosi down now.
Social media platforms are a place where people come for news & information.
They need to have certain standards.
Falsity has never been part of our 1st Amendment tradition. https://t.co/dwiDeKNd3D
— Rep. Ro Khanna (@RepRoKhanna) February 7, 2020
Facebook’s policy communications manager defended the social media company’s decision to reject Hammill’s request, and said:
Sorry, are you suggesting the President didn’t make those remarks and the Speaker didn’t rip the speech?
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) February 7, 2020
Stone explained to Business Insider that Facebook only removes media that has “been edited or synthesized — beyond adjustments for clarity or quality — in ways that aren’t apparent to an average person and would likely mislead someone into thinking that a subject o the video said words that they did not actually say.”
Facebook also requires the edit to be the “product of artificial intelligence or machine learning that emerges, replaces, or superimposes content onto a video, making it appear to be authentic,” Stone continued.
TPUSA’s video of Pelosi did not fall short of any of those standards, he concluded.
Americans who watched the speech know that Pelosi destroyed her entire copy of the speech after the conclusion of the State of the Union.