Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram remove Trump’s video over alleged copyright infringement

Twitter, Instagram and its parent company Facebook recently removed Donald Trump’s video from its platforms. The video contained photos of protests that prompted after George Floyd’s death on 25 May. One of the photos was a subject of a copyright complaint filed by the copyright holder.

Reuters reports that California lawyer Sam Koolaq’s firm submitted copyright complaints to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The video in question was on all platforms, and Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram remove it, along with the posts containing it.

As for YouTube, its parent company Alphabet Inc. said that the video wasn’t identical to the one shared on Twitter. There was reportedly no photo in it that induced the copyright complaint on other platforms, so the video remains on YouTube.

After it was removed from other sites, Trump complained on Twitter about it. “They are fighting hard for the Radical Left Democrats. A one sided battle. Illegal. Section 230!” his tweet reads. Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey responded: “Not true and not illegal. This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder.”

Twitter Pulls Trump Campaign Video of President Showing Empathy For Peaceful Protesters https://t.co/5DEIoPHsud They are fighting hard for the Radical Left Democrats. A one sided battle. Illegal. Section 230!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 6, 2020

Not true and not illegal.

This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder. https://t.co/RAsaYng71a

— jack (@jack) June 6, 2020

It wasn’t clear which of the photos induced the complaint, considering that there are many of them in the video. But this isn’t the first time Donald Trump’s videos have been removed due to copyright infringement. The New York Times reports that it happened at least twice before. Before the latest incident, Twitter removed Trump’s video with soundtrack of The Dark Knight Rises and Nickelback’s Photograph.

[via The Verge, The New York Times; image credits: Gage Skidmore]