Altered video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) circulated across social media networks this week in what appeared to be a right-wing attempt to discredit and embarrass her. One of the clips, which was shared by President Donald Trump on Twitter, was edited in a way that muddled and repeated her words, making her appear confused or even ill.

One video, first reported by The Washington Post, shows Pelosi speaking at an event held by the Center for American Progress on Wednesday. According to the Post, the video spread across YouTube and Twitter, and was viewed at least 1.4 million times on Facebook alone.

A Pelosi spokesperson told the Post that the office would not be commenting on “this sexist trash.”

The president’s tweet was sent out Thursday evening, and has not been removed as of press time. Twitter declined to comment, but it’s notable that the platform does not have any policy that instructs the removal of false or manipulated information or video. The only election-related misinformation the platform will remove pertains to the act of voting itself or misleading information on specific candidates, like an individual’s voting place and the times it opens or closes on election day.

The video below has been altered:

“PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE” pic.twitter.com/1OyCyqRTuk — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019

A Facebook spokesperson told The Verge that the clips of Pelosi would not be removed because the platform does not have a policy that dictates the removal of false information. The video was sent for review to a third-party fact-checker who rated it as “false,” so, according to Facebook, it has been de-ranked in News Feeds, but will not be removed.

Facebook does include “Related Articles,” and in this case, includes links to debunk the video from Politifact and Hoax-Alert in News Feeds. If you were to watch the video on the specific pages that posted it however, these Related Articles would not appear.

“This is the sort of inaction that doomed countless Rohingya people in Myanmar,” former editor at Facebook fact-checker Snopes, Brooke Binkowski, said in a tweet.

A YouTube spokesperson told The Hill that it has “clear policies” on what is acceptable on the platform, and removed the altered clips of Pelosi once they were flagged. “They also did not surface prominently,” the spokesperson said. “In fact, search results and watch next panels about Nancy Pelosi include videos from authoritative sources, usually at the top.”

“it’s more important than ever for the public to distinguish between what is real and what is fake”

But altered and edited clips are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to manipulated media and the threat it poses to elections when blasted across social media. This video of Pelosi appears to only be an edited version of the original clip and not made using so-called “deepfake” software. Still, it’s a good example of how fabricated video can catch fire on social media.

Distorted video has played a serious role in past presidential elections, most notably in 2016 when clips of Hillary Clinton were edited to make her appear sick on the campaign trail. These videos of Clinton were widely shared, inspiring some “experts” to pseudo-diagnose her with brain injuries or other conditions.

Earlier this month Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who chairs the House Select Committee on Intelligence, sounded the alarm on deepfake technology. “I am deeply concerned that deepfakes could be used to spread disinformation or interfere in our elections,” Schiff said. “We have another election coming up and it’s more important than ever for the public to distinguish between what is real and what is fake. Our democracy depends on it.”

Some legislation has floated around to combat the threats posed by deepfakes. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) introduced a bill earlier this year that would make it unlawful to create or distribute malicious deepfake videos. But since Congress moves slowly, it’s doubtful that these policies could be enacted into law before the 2020 elections hit.

Update May 24th, 1:06PM ET: Updated to clarify where Facebook’s Related Articles appear.