Twitter disables Trump tweet over copyright complaint

Reuters

Published Jul 18, 2020 11:08PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) disabled a campaign-style video that President Donald Trump retweeted on Saturday, citing a copyright complaint.

The video, which included music from the group Linkin Park, disappeared from the president's Twitter feed late Saturday with the notification: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner."

Twitter removed the video, which Trump had retweeted from White House social media director Dan Scavino, after it received a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice from Machine Shop Entertainment, according to a notice posted on the Lumen Database which collects requests for removal of online materials.

Machine Shop is a management company owned by the rock band Linkin Park, according to its LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD) page.

"We respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives," a Twitter representative said in an email statement.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter began challenging Trump's tweets in May and has repeatedly clashed with him since. The social media company has several times disabled or commented on tweets by the president because of what it said were copyright complaints or violations of a policy against threatening violence.

Twitter removed an image the president tweeted on June 30, which included a picture of Trump, because of a complaint from the New York Times, whose photographer had shot the image.