Nancy Pelosi enraged Republicans when she tore up a copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address last week.

On Thursday, the president shared a doctored video that misleadingly depicted her ripping it up while he introduced Charles McGee, one of the last living Tuskegee Airmen from World War II.

Twitter and Facebook have resisted calls to remove the edited video, saying it does not violate their rules, enraging Democrats and emboldening Republican attacks against the House speaker.

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Democrats are outraged after both Facebook and Twitter have refused to remove a video the president tweeted of last week’s State of the Union address that was misleadingly edited to make it appear as if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up a copy of Trump’s speech while he was introducing Charles McGee, one of the last living Tuskegee Airmen from World War II.

Pelosi’s decision to tear up the president’s speech, which she actually did at the conclusion of his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, was controversial in and of itself. Democrats praised the House speaker for standing up to the president, who was acquitted by the Senate in his impeachment trial less than 24 hours later. Republicans were outraged over Pelosi’s move, with some calling for her to be reprimanded, suggesting she may have violated laws that prohibit the destruction of government documents.

The discourse about the move by Pelosi, who upon exiting the address told reporters she “tore it up,” seemed to die down as the news cycle shifted, but on Thursday the president reignited the fire about her polarizing act when he tweeted the edited version of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNECVmfJtxc

Trump has a history of sharing doctored content

The “Freedom Fights” watermark in the video belongs to the conservative organization Turning Point USA. Trump has frequently shared edited videos from various sources.

The president in July, for example, tweeted an edited Time magazine graphic that showed him remaining US president forever. That video was created by a popular Trump-supporting meme account known as Carpe Donktum, which often tweets doctored videos that end up getting shared by the 45th president.

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Trump shared the video again Sunday, writing, “This will never get old!”

“Content that I post was ‘Doctored’ by me,” the Carpe Donktum account’s Twitter bio says, seeming to acknowledge that its clips often didn’t depict reality.

The creator of the account, which was also connected to the video that depicted Trump killing journalists and critics that was played at a pro-Trump event in Florida in October, told Business Insider he was not responsible for the video of Pelosi. Twitter had in October suspended the pro-Trump meme account, citing a copyright violation, though it eventually restored the account.

It was also not Trump’s first time sharing a doctored video of Pelosi, a Democrat from California. Pelosi last year criticized Facebook for refusing to remove a video of her that had been doctored to make it appear as if she had been slurring and stammering over her words.

There was a spat between Pelosi’s team and Facebook

“The American people know that the President has no qualms about lying to them – but it is a shame to see Twitter and Facebook, sources of news for millions, do the same,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, tweeted about the video Friday.

“The latest fake video of Speaker Pelosi is deliberately designed to mislead and lie to the American people, and every day that these platforms refuse to take it down is another reminder that they care more about their shareholders’ interests than the public’s interests,” Hammill added.

Andy Stone, Facebook’s policy communications manager, responded to Hammill’s tweet.

“Sorry, are you suggesting the President didn’t make those remarks and the Speaker didn’t rip the speech?” Stone asked.

“What planet are you living on? this is deceptively altered. take it down,” Hammill responded.

Stone confirmed Sunday to Business Insider that the edited video did not violate Facebook’s rules for removal. Specifically, Stone pointed toward two requirements.

Stone said Facebook would remove only media that had “been edited or synthesized – beyond adjustments for clarity or quality – in ways that aren’t apparent to an average person and would likely mislead someone into thinking that a subject of the video said words that they did not actually say.”

Furthermore, to remove a video, Facebook requires it to be “the product of artificial intelligence or machine learning that merges, replaces, or superimposes content onto a video, making it appear to be authentic,” Stone told Business Insider.

The video doesn’t violate Twitter rules, either – at least not yet

Twitter also confirmed to Business Insider that the video did not violate its policy. Twitter recently announced news rules about doctored media – scheduled to take effect March 5 – though it would not say whether the president’s video of Pelosi would be removed if it were tweeted once the new rules were enacted, according to the Daily Mail.

“You may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm,” according to Twitter’s blog post about the March policy change. “In addition, we may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand the media’s authenticity and to provide additional context.”

The San Francisco-based social-media behemoth has regularly found itself on the defensive to explain its decisions regarding the president’s Twitter account. Last year, during her failed run for the Democratic Party’s nomination to take on Trump this November, Sen. Kamala Harris of California joined those calling for Twitter to suspend the president from its platform over his behavior.

In October, Twitter released separate rules applicable only to world leaders like the American president.

“We understand the desire for our decisions to be ‘yes/no’ binaries, but it’s not that simple,” Twitter said at the time. “The actions we take and policies we develop will set precedent around online speech and we owe it to the people we serve to be deliberate and considered in what we do.”

Foto: Twitter’s founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey.sourceDavid Becker/Getty Images

The company has often used newsworthiness to defend leaving up content from the president that might normally violate its rules. It last year instituted a policy of labeling tweets from accounts with more than 100,000 followers that violated its policies rather than removing them outright.

But in July, when the president sent tweets directing a group of minority US lawmakers, all of them American citizens, to “go back” to their ancestral countries, Twitter said it would not label the tweets in violation of its policies – despite a policy prohibiting racist tropes.

Democrats want the clip removed, but Republicans say that would be censorship.

Still, Democrats are furious that the latest edited clip has remained on social media, racking up some 84,000 retweets and 225,000 likes on Twitter alone. On Facebook, the clip has been viewed almost 3 million times and shared more than 34,000 times.

“Hey @jack, show your commitment to cut down on the misinformation corroding our nation and take down this fake video,” Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas tweeted.

This video is clearly another deceptive effort by @realDonaldTrump to mislead and manipulate the American people. Hey @jack, show your commitment to cut down on the misinformation corroding our nation and take down this fake video. https://t.co/C2uAFPfWzL — Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) February 7, 2020

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California tweeted: “Social media platforms are a place where people come for news & information. They need to have certain standards. Falsity has never been part of our 1st Amendment tradition.”

Prominent Republicans, though, have demanded the clip remain on the platform.

“Don’t let the totalitarian censors win,” Benny Johnson, the chief creative officer at Turning Point USA who is a popular right-wing Twitter personality, said. “Fight back. Pelosi does not want you to see this video simply because it shows how petty and insulting her act was at the SOTU.”

Don’t let the totalitarian censors win. Fight back. Pelosi does not want you to see this video simply because it shows how petty and insulting her act was at the SOTU. That should make you want to share our video even more: pic.twitter.com/JPnFx0cAU0 — Benny (@bennyjohnson) February 8, 2020

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Fox News contributor, shared a similar sentiment.

“The video that Saint Pelosi doesn’t want America to see,” Huckabee said. “Demands that @Twitter and @Facebook remove. God help us if they cave to this! He gave the speech; she ripped it and with it the stories of great Americans.”

The video that Saint Pelosi doesn't want America to see. Demands that @Twitter and @Facebook remove. God help us if they cave to this! He gave the speech; she ripped it and with it the stories of great Americans. @NocensorshipME https://t.co/0W6HSvsb3F — Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) February 9, 2020

“Nancy Pelosi wants this video taken down. She would be really mad if you retweeted it…” Rep. Paul Gosar of Arkansas tweeted Saturday.

The White House did not respond to a Business Insider request for comment.

Update: This article has been updated to include that the video shared by Trump was originally created by Turning Point USA.