A video tweeted by President Donald Trump of two toddlers -- one Black and one white -- running down a sidewalk was disabled by Twitter Friday, citing the copyright owner. The video of the boys, who are best friends, included a faked CNN graphic that implied the Black child was running from a "racist baby" who was "probably a Trump voter."
The video, which included a CNN logo in the corner, was aimed at the "fake" news media. It was tagged by Twitter Thursday night as "manipulated media."
The video shows the Black child running down the sidewalk with the white boy running after him. A lower-third graphic says, "BREAKING NEWS: TERRIFIED TODLER RUNS FROM RACIST BABY." The word toddler was misspelled. It switches to say, "RACIST BABY PROBABLY A TRUMP VOTER."
The font and graphic background does not match what appears daily on CNN.
The video switches to say "What actually happened." It shows the two children running toward each other and hugging, then running down the street.
"America is not the problem. Fake News is," the video goes on to read. "If you see something, say something. Only you can prevent fake news dumpster fires."
Twitter on Friday replaced the video with a statement: "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner."
The original video of the children in New York City became a viral sensation last September. The father of one of the boys told WPIX the kids -- Maxwell and Finnegan -- had been best friends for more than a year.
Maxwell's dad, Michael Cisneros, noted at the time that it was a "beautiful video" given "all the racism and hate" that was happening.
"The reason that it's getting attention [is] because it is with a little Black boy and a little white boy...But if it can change someone's mind, you know, or just change their view on things, then it's totally worth it," Cisneros told WPIX.
CNN gave an update on the boys June 6.
The video was a direct upload to Trump's account, not a retweet. There is a bug in the corner of the video with the Twitter handle @carpedonktum. That account labels itself as "specializing in the creation of memes to support President Donald J. Trump. Content that I post was 'Doctored' by me." The account thanked Trump for posting the video.
Twitter's media policy reads "You may not deceptively promote synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm. In addition, we may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context."
This is at least the third time now that Twitter has tagged a Trump post after generally staying clear of any rebuke.
On May 27, Twitter put notations on Trump's tweets for the first time. It added fact-check links to two Trump tweets about the supposed risks of voting by mail. Trump quickly issued an executive order aimed at stripping legal protections companies like Twitter enjoy.
Undeterred, Twitter responded two days later by flagging another Trump tweet — one that suggested he would have the National Guard fire on protesters in Minneapolis — with a warning for “glorification of violence,” which is against its rules. Users can still see the tweet by clicking through the warning.
That tweet was sent out during the early, violent protests following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died in Minneapolis police custody. Video showed a white police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly eight minutes.
The new video tagged by Twitter Thursday came the same day Facebook revealed it had removed an ad by the Trump campaign that featured an upside-down red triangle. That symbol was once used by Nazis to designate political prisoners, communists and others in concentration camps.
Nathaniel Gleicher, the company’s head of security policy, confirmed at a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday that the ad had been removed. He says Facebook doesn't permit symbols of hateful ideology “unless they’re put up with context or condemnation.”
The Trump campaign says the inverted red triangle is a symbol used by antifa so it was included in an ad about antifa. Experts say the symbol isn't used by the anti-fascist militants.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.