Twitter has censored yet another meme posted by President Donald Trump. The company removed an image tweeted by Trump for allegedly violating its copyright policy.
Twitter has cracked down on Trump’s sincere demands for order, his calls to action, and now even his jokes once again. A meme photo was posted by Trump on June 30 depicting a photo of himself, captioned with the words: “In reality they’re not after me they’re after you” and the phrase, “I’m just in the way.”
Twitter confirmed in an email that the meme photo in question had been removed after a copyright claim. The tweet now just shows a “media not displayed” notice with the caption explaining that “[T]his image has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder.”
The meme featured a photo taken by Damon Winter for The New York Times in 2015, reported CNBC. “‘Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives,’ a Twitter spokesperson [stated],” according to CNBC. “The New York Times filed the takedown notice, a company’s spokesperson said.”
This has been the latest of many memes censored from Trump and his allies. In mid-June a Carpe Donktum video tweeted by Trump parodying CNN coverage had been labelled by Twitter as “manipulated media.”
The meme video depicted a fake CNN headline that stated, "TERRIFIED TODLER [sic] RUNS FROM RACIST BABY." The footage featured an African-American toddler being chased by a white toddler with seemingly ominous music playing in the background. The segment was followed by a clip of "WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED," which featured the same two children “running toward each other on a sidewalk before embracing as Harry Connick Jr.'s version of the Carpenter's ‘Close to You’ plays,” NBC News summarized.
The video was clearly intended as a hyperbolic parody of liberal media coverage, Big Tech and liberal journalists took it with utter seriousness. The parody video’s editor, Carpe Donktum, has since been suspended from Twitter.
In a similar occurrence last October, Twitter censored a meme video that used edited footage from Nickelback’s music video “Photograph” was shared by Trump. The video had an edit of Chad Kroeger holding up an image of former Vice President Joe Biden golfing with his son and a Ukrainian gas executive. The video clip was removed and a message put in its place: “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact by tweeting at the official @Twitter account and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form to be included in our database, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
