FB Refuses to Remove Doctored Video of US Politician Nancy Pelosi

The clip was slowed down so that Pelosi’s movements appeared sluggish and her speech seemed slow and laboured.

Nancy Pelosi, US House of Representatives Speaker.

(Photo: AP/J Scott Applewhite)

A doctored video which shows the US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, slurring as if she were drunk, did the rounds of the internet gathering millions of views, reported The Washington Post.

The original clip was slowed down so that Pelosi’s movements appeared sluggish and her speech seemed slow and laboured. It was uploaded on the page ‘Politics WatchDog’.

Youtube removed the video on Thursday, 23 May, as it violated “clear policies that outline what content is not acceptable to post.” Twitter did not remove the video as its guidelines do not prohibit inaccurate statements.

Facebook, on which this video gained the most traction, also refused to remove it. It told Washington Post that “We don’t have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true.”

This comes after Facebook’s Independent fact-checking groups Lead Stories and PolitiFact verified that the video was doctored.

The social media platform reportedly promised to “heavily reduce” the video’s appearances in people’s news feeds, add links to the two fact-check sites, as well as to “additional reporting” whenever someone tries to share the video.

The reluctance to remove false information stems from Facebook’s caution against stifling free speech.

“There’s a tension here: we work hard to find the right balance between encouraging free expression and promoting a safe and authentic community, and we believe that reducing the distribution of inauthentic content strikes that balance.”

Facebook

This follows a spat between Pelosi and Trump in which they both questioned each others’ mental condition:

Donald Trump had tweeted a video of Ms. Pelosi on Thursday night; an edited clip from Fox Business that spliced together moments where she had stumbled on her words, along with the caption, “PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE.”

Pelosi, the same day, had said called on Trump's family and aides to conduct an intervention "for the good of the country".

(With inputs from The Washington Post.)