Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Friday, Aug 21, 2026

Facebook and Twitter decline Pelosi request to sensore her hate and unrespect to the country she's representing

Facebook and Twitter refused to sensor and to take down a video showing Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up President Donald Trump's State of the Union speech that was edited to appear as if she was doing so as Trump saluted a Tuskegee airman in the audience.

Trump shared the video on Facebook and Twitter.

Facebook and Twitter both said the video does not violate their policies.

A fierce behind-the-scenes dispute between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and Facebook erupted into public view Friday, as the speaker’s office demanded that Facebook remove a video posted online by President Donald Trump.

The video in question showed Pelosi’s viral State of the Union moment ripping up the text of Trump’s speech Tuesday night, but was edited to make it appear that she ripped the speech even as Trump saluted a Tuskegee airman in the audience. In fact, Pelosi’s speech-ripping gesture came at the end of the president’s speech, and her office said it was in response to the totality of the speech and what Pelosi saw as misinformation in it.

The video, labeled “Powerful American stories ripped to shreds by Nancy Pelosi,” was posted on both Facebook and Twitter. Trump tweeted the video from his Twitter account just before 6 p.m. Thursday to his more than 72 million followers.

Within hours, the speaker’s office was demanding both social media companies remove the video, arguing it was unfair to Pelosi, who actually stood and applauded the airman during the speech.

Both Facebook and Twitter decided against removing the Trump video, although the companies cited different reasons for their decisions.

The dispute became public Friday when Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, posted a link to a criticism of the video Friday afternoon, writing “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.”


Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesman, replied to Hammill on Twitter: “Sorry, are you suggesting the President didn’t make those remarks and the Speaker didn’t rip the speech?”

Hammill fired back: “What planet are you living on? This is deceptively altered. Take it down.”

In the end, both Facebook and Twitter declined to remove the Trump campaign post, citing corporate policies.

Facebook’s Stone told CNBC, “I can confirm for you that the video doesn’t violate our policies.”

Stone said the company’s policies against altered video specifically refer to video that has been edited to make it appear a person said something they didn’t say or did something they didn’t do.

Facebook’s response left Pelosi’s Hammill frustrated.

“I think they have a history here of promoting and making money off of content that is intentionally false,” Hammill said.

Twitter, for its part, has a new set of policies around manipulated media that the company announced Tuesday. The company imposed a new rule on its users: “You may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media that are likely to cause harm. In addition, we may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand the media’s authenticity and to provide additional context.”

To determine that, Twitter said it would examine videos to ascertain “whether the content has been substantially edited in a manner that fundamentally alters its composition, sequence, timing or framing” as well as looking at “any visual or auditory information (such as new video frames, overdubbed audio or modified subtitles) that has been added or removed.”

But that policy doesn’t go into effect until March 5, and Twitter told Pelosi’s office that it will not remove the Trump video under its current rules. Asked if the Trump video would violate Twitter’s policies if it is posted again after March 5, Twitter spokeswoman Katie Rosborough wrote in an email: “I can’t get into hypotheticals.”

A Trump campaign spokesman said the president’s reelection effort is unconcerned about Pelosi’s reaction to the video.

“If Nancy Pelosi fears images of her ripping up the speech, perhaps she shouldn’t have ripped up the speech,” said Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh. In less than 24 hours, Murtaugh said, the video has received 2.1 million views, has reached almost 5 million people and has been shared more than 23,000 times.

It wasn’t immediately clear who actually produced the video in question. The Trump campaign referred that question to the White House, and spokespeople there did not respond to a request for comment.

As all of that was happening, Pelosi’s office was fighting to get Facebook to remove a second video of Nancy Pelosi that the speaker’s office also complained about: This one a deceptively edited video of Pelosi appearing on The Colbert Report in a comedy segment. The altered video made it appear that Pelosi was eating Tide Pods, and Facebook has a policy against that.

Facebook took the Tide Pod video down.

“When the Tide Pod challenge began we said we would take down any such videos brought to our attention out of concern for people’s safety, which is why we’ve removed this video from our platform,” a Facebook spokesman said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez Sign Prenup Protecting Their Separate Fortunes
Google Launches Pixel 11 With Gemini AI at the Center of Its Hardware Strategy
Turkish Parliament Passes Landmark Bill Granting Conditional Amnesty to Disarmed PKK Members
Jorge Messi, Lionel Messi’s Father and Longtime Agent, Dies at 68
AI’s Next Bottleneck Is Power, Not Just Nvidia Chips
Meta Raises AI Spending Target to as Much as $145bn Despite Pressure Over Returns
Joe Biden’s Cancer Has Spread Beyond His Bones, Hunter Biden Says
Why 2027 Could Be a Strong Year for Stocks—and Why the Forecast Is Fragile
Why Markets May Look Quiet in August After Big Tech Earnings
Trump’s Top General Seeks an Exit Strategy From Iran War, Report Says
Brock Lesnar Retires From Wrestling, Closing a Career of Rare Athletic Range and Lasting Controversy
UFO: Pentagon Releases Video of Unidentified Object Tracked Over Middle East
Ukraine Tells Senate Republicans Its Drone War Offers a Blueprint for America
Weight-Loss Drug Boom Tests the Limits of Prescription Advertising Rules
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan Sign Mutual-Defence Pact
AI Is Remaking the US Economy, From GDP Growth to iPhone Prices
A SpaceX Rocket Is About to Crash Into the Moon — and Scientists Hope to Watch
Modern Slavery Decisions Broaden the Al Fayed Inquiry’s Frame
FIFA’s Retreat Leaves a Larger Question Over Who Guards the Game
Finland Deploys Commercial-Scale Thermal Batteries Using Crushed Rock to Store Renewable Grid Energy
Valued at $109 Million: F-35B Fighter Jet Crashes in Southern California
US Says It Has Carried Out Heavy Strikes on Iran After Attempted Attacks on Its Forces
Over 24 Hours in the Air: Qantas Airbus Completes Record-Breaking Test Flight
Arrest Warrant Issued in Lebanon for Tycoon Spotted Meeting Netanyahu in Washington
Trump says Israel ‘would not survive’ without US
Nvidia Reportedly Takes Vast Texas Data-Centre Lease to Underwrite AI Expansion
FIFA’s Private-Investment Plan for World Cup Rights Draws European Revolt
Following OpenAI's Cyberattack: 'Most Companies Still Do Not Understand What Is Coming'
OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Discouraged Emergency Care Before Near-Fatal Embolism
Miliband Sets Climate and International Law at Centre of UK Diplomacy
Pentagon Discloses Nearly 100 US Troop Injuries During Renewed Iran Fighting
Trump Readies New Tariffs as Temporary Global Levy Nears Expiry
High Prices Push Coffee Drinkers Toward Whole Beans and Home Brewing
Trump Draws Boos and Podium Scrutiny at Spain’s World Cup Triumph
Spain Defeats Argentina in Extra Time to Win Second World Cup
Turkey Explores S-400 Transfer to UAE in Bid to Rejoin F-35 Program
US Retaliates Against Iran After Two American Troops Killed in Jordan
Proposed U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Pact Could Permit Limited Uranium Enrichment Under International Safeguards
Why Kentucky Fried Chicken Became KFC—and Why the False Explanations Persist
Iran Claims It Destroyed Bahrain’s Main Artificial Intelligence Center in Missile and Drone Strike
Ukrainian Drones Strike Wildberries Warehouses Deep Inside Russia
Reported CIA Mission Helped Clear the UAE’s Path to Advanced US AI Chips
Artificial Intelligence Capital Fuels Markets While Governments and Regulators Face Mounting Strategic Tests
China’s Moonshot’s Kimi K3 Narrows the Gap With Anthropic Through Scale, Openness and Lower Cost
Gold and Cash Seizure Puts Indonesia’s Senior Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Under Investigation
The Ledger Will Not Trust on Faith
Passenger Bound for Germany Refused to Sit Beside a Woman on a Plane — Then Slapped a Flight Attendant
Ukraine’s Leadership Rift Spills Into the Streets as Protesters Target Army Chief
The Ten World Cup Finals That Defined Football History
Smartphones Are Getting More Expensive, Sales Are Collapsing, and Even Apple Admits: "Prices Will Rise"
×