This archive report was first published on 5 June 2020.
On June 3, U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign tweeted a three-minute 45-second video tribute to George Floyd, which was uploaded to Trump's YouTube channel. The video, however, was disabled by Twitter Inc due to a copyright complaint.
The video, which featured photos and videos of protest marches and instances of violence in the aftermath of Floyd's death, had garnered more than 60,000 views and 13,000 likes on YouTube. Twitter's decision to disable the video was made in accordance with its copyright policy, which states that the platform responds to valid copyright complaints sent by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives.
"We respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives," a Twitter representative said in a statement. The move has sparked further scrutiny of Twitter by the Trump administration, which has been critical of the platform's fact-checking of Trump's tweets and labeling of a Trump tweet as "glorifying violence."
Trump has pledged to introduce legislation that may scrap or weaken a law that shields social media companies from liability for content posted by their users.
