Twitter flags fake 'racist baby' CNN video shared by Donald Trump

Twitter has slapped another label on a tweet by President Donald Trump, this time warning that a video he shared was doctored and escalating the social media company's crackdown on the world leader - and one of its most widely followed users.

After Trump tweeted the video late Thursday, Twitter took the rare step of adding a warning that it was “manipulated media" and linked to a page that said multiple journalists confirmed the clip was edited to make it look like a CNN broadcast.

The video remains visible on Trump's timeline.

The doctored clip used footage from a video that went viral last year of two toddlers, one Black, one white, which CNN used for a story it did on the boys' friendship.

The video begins with footage of the boys running set to ominous music, with a fake misspelled CNN caption reading, “Terrified todler runs from racist baby."

Then it cuts to other footage from the original video of the boys excitedly running to each other and hugging, which formed the basis of the original CNN story, before showing the message, “America is not the problem. Fake news is.”

Twitter Post

It's the latest salvo in the battle between Trump and tech companies, which he has accused of silencing conservative voices.

Trump lashed out at Twitter last month after it added fact-check warnings to two of his tweets on mail-in voting, and vowed to add new regulations to rein in social media companies.

Twitter in March used the “manipulated media” warning to mark a video of Biden shared by President Donald Trump.

This isn’t the first time Trump has been embroiled in controversy over social media posts. Earlier on the same day, Facebook removed Trump campaign ads that featured a Nazi symbol.

On Thursday night the US president posted another video which had another alleged doctored CNN clip.

The video accused journalists of magnifying fake news, and misrepresenting a confrontation between a white Trump supporter that chased after an Uber driver.

In the clip, CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is speaking into the camera with a fake chyron that reads:
“Trumps Fault? White Man in MAGA Hat Attacks Black Uber Driver”.