TORONTO -- For the first time under new fact checking polices, Twitter and Facebook have taken action to discredit an edited video clip of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, labeling the clip as “manipulated media.”
The video clip, initially shared by White House director of social media Dan Scavino on Saturday, shows former Vice President Biden at a campaign rally in Kansas City, Missouri.
In the version of the video shared by Scavino, Biden can be heard saying, “We can only re-elect Donald Trump,” before cutting off.
However, the full video reveals that Biden said, "We can only re-elect Donald Trump if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here. It's got to be a positive campaign, so join us."
The edited clip shared by Scavino was widely circulated on Twitter and was eventually retweeted by Trump himself.
On Monday, Twitter applied a “manipulated media” label to Scavino’s tweet in keeping with a new policy that came into effect just last week.
According to that policy, users “may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm.” The policy states that tweets containing so-called manipulated media are designed to help users understand their authenticity and “provide additional context.”
Facebook followed suit Monday, adding a “Partly False Information” label to the video under its fact-checking initiative.
The third-party fact-checking initiative, launched in Canada in June 2018, relies on independent organizations to verify posts flagged by users and algorithms as false or misleading.
Users who come across the Biden video can choose to watch it or opt to read a fact check by Facebook partner Lead Stories, which explains that the clip was edited.
“In the video clip, Biden was suggesting that in-fighting within the Democratic Party could help lead to Trump's re-election, not that he was somehow accidentally - or deliberately - conceding the race for the White House,” reads the fact check.
Republicans slammed the social media companies for labelling the video as “manipulated,” saying Twitter is setting a “dangerous precedent.”
On Monday, Scavino stood by the decision to share the video tweeting, “The video was NOT manipulated.” He also shared several tweets alleging all videos on the platform are “manipulated” because they need to be shortened to be uploaded to the social network.
