Instagram Censors Donald Trump Jr.'s Chuck Schumer Meme
Instagram's fact-checkers flagged a meme posted by Donald Trump Jr. that targets Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats. Independent fact-checkers working with the social media site labeled the image "partly false."
The meme features a timeline highlighting four dates between January 31st and March 13th in which prominent government Democrats attack President Trump's ban of flights to China. Included in the list, a claim that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the congressional Democrats have a "meltdown saying the China Travel Ban is part of Trump's war against immigrants." However, this tweet never happened.
According to Lead Stories, the claim originated in an article by American Thinker on February 29th, which claimed Schumer "quietly deletes his tweet criticizing Trump's China travel ban as 'premature' and 'war against immigrants.'"
However, according to Twitter's Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde, Schumer's tweet never happened. The article in American Thinker has since been updated.
This
SenSchumer</a> tweet screenshot appears to be a fake: <a href="https://t.co/iUsNEeGoUY">https://t.co/iUsNEeGoUY</a><br><br>Want to see if a politician deleted a tweet? We have a partnership with <a href="https://twitter.com/politwoops?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">politwoops that allows you to see that information (details here: https://t.co/lBVPOo1Tt4) https://t.co/LKJPoiqeUT— Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya) February 29, 2020
Due to its inclusion, Trump Jr.'s post has been blurred out by Instagram, requiring users to read the fact-checkers' review before seeing the meme.
Instagram launched its fact-checking initiative in December 2019 to combat misinformation on the platform. The app currently works with 45 third-party fact-checkers certified by the International Fact-Checking Network, according to Business Insider.
Despite the flagging, the meme remains on Trump Jr.'s Instagram page.
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Mega_Dork
>Twitter 'fact checks' a public figure they don't like
>"However, according to Twitter's Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde, Schumer's tweet never happened."
So either Twitters Trust and Safety division is completely trustworthy.
Or
This is another example of soft censorship where one side of the political spectrum is treated with different standards to the other.
Hmm.. I wonder which one it is!
Panuru
You're recasting reality as a matter of trust. Adolph Hitler didn't conquer the United States. If person A says he did and person B says he didn't, you don't give some smartass rhetorical question about hmmm I wonder if you really trust person B more than person A. It's a thing that never happened in reality. Likewise here.
Mega_Dork
Who's recasting reality? I never stated which one was true. I simply cast doubt where it's warranted. You're the one assuming something never happened based on the words of a very biased organization when you probably don't know if it did or didn't.
Panuru
> one assuming something never happened based on the words of
That is exactly the point. It is not a thing that happened in this reality. I'm basing it on that, not on anyone's words. It. Did. Not. Occur. Someone's words that it did happen or someone's words that it did not are irrelevant to that. And recasting it as a matter of opinion or or trust is exactly what I called out.
Smol Nozomi
A pet peeve of mine with memes especially political ones are the rhetorical questions at the end. Acting all smug and pretending it's the checkmate that ends all arguments.