Twitter Removes Trump Video over Nickelback Copyright Claim

Twitter took down a video tweeted by President Donald Trump yesterday due to a copyright claim related to the presence of a five-second clip from a video by music group Nickelback which had been edited to mock Joe Biden.

Trump tweeted the video with a line from the Nickelback song from the music video: “Look at this Photograph.”

In the original video, the line is accompanied by a clip of Nickelback singer Chad Kroeger holding up a photograph of himself and his friend.

The clip is commonly edited into memes that swap the photograph with another image — in Trump’s case, the meme he tweeted featured a photo of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden at a golf course with Ukrainian gas executives.

The parody video is still available in other tweets, including one from Donald Trump Jr.

Not sure why Twitter wouldn’t want you to “Look at this Photograph” pic.twitter.com/fmXkdc5gTo

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 3, 2019

Twitter recently said that it will not take down tweets from politicians, even if they break the site’s rules, but that the platform may suppress their reach. In the case of Trump’s tweet, the tweet remains up, but the accompanying parody video has been removed.

Many users argue that this is an overreach of copyright rules, and that there is an argument that the clip is fair use given that only a few seconds of a Nickelback video were used, for the purpose of parody.

This video def clears Fair Use’s four factor test:

1. Purpose (parody)
2. Nature of the work (it’s a transformative use, not just copying)
3. Amount (a few seconds)
4. Effect on market (no one will avoid buying this song b/c a few seconds are available in Trump’s video) https://t.co/N1NvTjnb2D

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 3, 2019