Even liberal media outlets are condemning anti-Trump ads for containing misinformation about President Donald Trump, but Twitter will not call it that.
The bias against Trump has become so egregious that even The Hill and The Washington Post are calling it out. “According to emails reviewed by The Hill, the Trump campaign flagged new content on Twitter that it said had been deceptively edited,” The Hill’s Jonathan Easly wrote on March 16. One video in question was shared by Mike Bloomberg’s former senior adviser Tim O’Brien and featured audio clips of Trump’s words spliced together and taken out of context, set to a rising graph showing “Confirmed Coronavirus Cases in US.” Former Vice President Joe Biden tweeted a video with similar language.
The most damning part from the videos was Trump saying, “Coronavirus” edited together with “this is their new hoax,” as if Trump were denying the existence of the disease.
The Hill said it accessed internal emails suggesting that the Trump campaign flagged the Twitter video on Wednesday, and Twitter allegedly responded that the ad in question did not violate its “manipulated media” policy.
The Trump re-election campaign’s Deputy Director of Communications Matt Wolking tweeted The Hill’s coverage and wrote: “This is indisputable evidence that Twitter has one rule for the Trump campaign and another rule for Democrats.”
Fox News commented that “Twitter had previously told Fox News it wouldn't retroactively apply its new policy to older videos. But, the social media giant is now refusing to explain why it won't address a slew of recent clips that present a false picture of Trump's comments.” A Twitter spokesperson reportedly told Fox News on Thursday that "The Tweet you referenced will not be labeled under our synthetic and manipulated media policy."
Wolking was also quoted by Fox News blasting Twitter’s bias:
"Twitter refused to apply its manipulated media label to a Biden campaign video that the Washington Post Fact Checker gave 4 Pinocchios for deceptive editing, and now Twitter is refusing to label a viral video that doctors audio of President Trump to spread misinformation about the coronavirus. Twitter’s political bias is obvious and it is actively choosing to protect Joe Biden."
Fox News observed that “A slew of fact-checkers,” such as The Washington Post, Politifact, and Snopes, all called out the fact that Trump had not referred to the virus as a hoax.
The Washington Post's Meg Kelly wrote that Trump “never says that the virus itself is a hoax, and although the Biden camp included the word 'their,' the edit does not make clear to whom or what Trump is referring.”
On the other hand, Twitter labelled a video of Democratic primary frontrunner Joe Biden stammering during a rally speech as “manipulated media.” Biden said the following in the clip: “Because we can not get re-elect, we can not win this re-election. Excuse me, we can only re-elect Donald Trump.”
The Trump campaign reportedly sent a letter to Twitter accusing the company of enforcing a “Biden protection rule.”
Politico quoted the Trump campaign’s Chief Operating Officer Michael Glassner’s roast of Twitter’s leadership in the letter:
“It appears that many people employed by Big Tech corporations in Silicon Valley are assisting the Biden campaign by instituting a special ‘Biden protection rule’ that effectively censors and silences legitimate political speech Biden’s campaign and its supporters do not like.”
"In order for American elections to remain free and fair, it is critical that the Biden campaign be held to the same standard it is demanding apply to others," wrote Glassner, according to The Hill.
