Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is pushing back at President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign following the social media network’s removal of the president’s tribute video to George Floyd.
Trump insisted that it was “illegal” for the video to be removed. However, Dorsey argues that “isn’t true.”
Dorsey took to Twitter with a direct response to Trump as he defended the social network while explaining the reason for the removal. According to Dorsey, Twitter received a complaint citing the video’s violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
“Not true and not illegal. This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder,” Dorsey tweeted on Friday.
Not true and not illegal.
— jack (@jack) June 6, 2020
This was pulled because we got a DMCA complaint from copyright holder. https://t.co/RAsaYng71a
Dorsey’s response came shortly after Trump sounded off with a claim accusing Twitter of “fighting hard for the Radical Left Democrats. A one-sided battle. Illegal. Section 230!”
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
The remarks follow the release of Trump’s tribute to Floyd on Wednesday along with Twitter’s removal of it.
At the time, the social network placed an alert message over the space where the media file was removed, as previously reported on IJR.
The alert read: “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.” In response to that, Trump’s campaign spokesperson Andrew Clark accused Twitter of “making up the rules as they go along.”
However, shortly after Twitter’s decision to remove the video over copyright laws, Facebook and Instagram also followed suit.
A statement has been released on behalf of Facebook and Instagram, also citing a DMCA complaint as the reason for the removal.
“We received a copyright complaint from the creator under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and have removed the post,” a Facebook representative told The Hill. “Organizations that use original art shared on Instagram are expected to have the right to do so.”