TWITTER FINALLY DECIDED TO TAKE DOWN THE FAKE JOE BIDEN AD THAT HAS TRIGGERED POLITICAL CONFLICT
Social Media is a very powerful platform. They can be a rich source of information, righteous movements, but at the same time create mayhem through unreliable words. Fake news spreads faster than trusted facts and figures. And, especially things tend to go out of hand when famous people with thousands of followers share this type of false information as well. Among all the social media, Twitter is one of the most powerful. One single tweet can bring down the reputation of a person and can build it at the same time. And, recently, politics in America has gone aggressive through these threads of tweets. A fake ad of Joe Biden is spread worldwide by re-posting the tweet. The staff of Trump campaign has been amplifying this political bashing.
What is the tweet?
Recently, a fake Joe Biden ad has gone viral on Twitter. And, the Trump campaign members escalated the spread of this tweet. Many of them reposted it saying it might be true. But, finally, Twitter has decided to take down the fake ad of Joe Biden. Because, amongst the pandemic of COVID-19, the least world needs right now is a firework of political revolt.
The tweet is no longer available on the platform. Though, the image that was posted showed Joe Biden’s chest has been lightening up. And, it also showed a beam of light coming from it. Along with the image, the tweet read, “His brain? No. His heart.” The tweet also had the official logo of the campaign as well on top of it.
It has only been a few days that this fake tweet has been posted, and it received 1,000 retweets and 62,000 likes. Common people are hyped about any loopholes and when it is triggered by the system itself, the situation gets worse. Apart from Twitter, the post was also shared in platforms like Reddit and Tumblr. But, the real toll took place on Twitter when an accounted re-posted it saying that it is 100% authentic. But, the Biden campaign confirmed it to Twitter that it is fake and thus, asked to remove it.
Who said what?
Many members of the Trump campaign has shown interest in this tweet and shared it as well. Tim Murtaugh, the Director of Communications for the reelection campaign of Donald Trump also shared the post. Not only he shared the tweet but he also said that though Twitter is not that trustworthy at times, the Joe Biden ad is not a fake one. Another member of Trump’s campaign, Karen Giorno (chief strategist for Florida branch) also shared it claiming the ad was approved by Joe Biden.
This is not the first time
But, this is not the first time that fake images and false allegations have fired between Joe Biden and Trump’s campaign. Last month, Dan Scavino, the social media director of White House posted a tweet of Joe Biden. The content showed a doctored video of Joe Biden and Twitter applied a tag of “manipulated media” on it. This is the first time that Twitter put the tag of fake media on the tweet.
After Twitter put the tag of “manipulated media”, Greg Schultz, campaign manager of Joe Biden, said that Facebook should have also taken fast action like Twitter. Moreover, from 5th March, Twitter started putting this tag on fake media that has the potential to create political tension. This helped the platform maintain harmony by creating friction in the velocity of the spread.
Taking the necessary steps
The previous year, Twitter declared that it will ban all types of political advertising starting from November 2019. Jack Dorsey, CEO of the company made the full policy public on November 15th. Due to this ban, the opposition party was unable to boost this recklessly. But, the tweet was indeed present on the platform for a good few days and the shares weren’t labeled as false.
But, Twitter has declared that this particular post violates the Election Integrity Policy of the company. And, hence they were looking into it followed by taking some fast actions. Apart from these fake ads to bring down the image of the opposition parties, health-related conspiracy theories are cooking as well.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more