Deceptively Edited Videos Spread Misinformation Across Facebook and Twitter

Strategic Insights -

In the past few days, a series of misleading videos shared by prominent Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have garnered millions of views on Facebook and Twitter, despite the companies' efforts to combat misinformation. Twitter's response to one of the videos, a manipulated video of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, followed a familiar pattern: the company labeled the video as "manipulated media" but did not remove it. The tweet had been viewed 1.3 million times by the time it was removed, not due to the misinformation it contained, but due to a copyright claim. Meanwhile, Facebook took no action on the same video, and the company declined to comment on the matter.

Key Takeaways:

  • Four misleading videos spread across Facebook and Twitter in the past few days, garnering millions of views.
  • Twitter labeled three of the videos as "manipulated media," but only removed one video due to a copyright claim.
  • Facebook took no action on the same videos and declined to comment.
  • The manipulated media label appears below the video and may not be effective in stopping the spread of misinformation.
  • Republican Rep. Steve Scalise, House Minority Whip, deleted a video after Twitter identified it as "manipulated media," citing a request from the person in the video.
  • Facebook has a policy that prohibits fact-checking politicians, but the company has made exceptions in certain cases, such as the removal of a video posted by Trump claiming that children are "almost immune" to COVID-19.

Statistics:

  • 1.3 million: the number of views the manipulated video of Biden had before it was removed due to a copyright claim.
  • 2.4 million: the number of views the fake Biden interview video had before it was removed due to a copyright claim.
  • 18 hours: the amount of time it took Twitter to label and remove the fake Biden interview video.
  • 2019: the year a crime video was posted, which was falsely attributed to the Black Lives Matter movement and Antifa.

Sources:

  • CNN Business article: "A series of deceptively edited and misleading videos shared by prominent Republicans have run up millions of views across Facebook and Twitter in just the past few days."
  • Twitter: @realDonaldTrump, @SteveScalise, @DanScavino
  • Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO
  • US COVID-19 cases: as of latest publicly available data.