U.S. President Donald Trump shared a meme featuring the music video for Nickelback‘s 2005 song Photograph that smears 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, but it was quickly removed by Twitter due to a breach of copyright.
In one part of the song’s original music video, lead singer Chad Kroeger holds up a framed photograph. The music video has often been used as a meme online, with meme creators changing the photo in the frame to make a point.
In this particular meme, which Trump posted on Twitter on Wednesday, the frame contains a picture of Biden with his son, Hunter Biden, an anonymous man and a Ukrainian gas executive. Trump accompanied the video with the caption: “LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH!”
Lumen, an online database that compiles copyright complaints and processes material removal requests, shows that a complaint was lodged against the tweet by Warner Media Group.
The database provides a link to the YouTube upload of the original Nickelback music video as well as a direct link to Trump’s tweet featuring part of the video.
“Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives,” a spokesperson for Twitter told Business Insider.
READ MORE: Trump hurls insults in wake of impeachment calls, while Democrats promise new subpoena
The U.S. president has been actively fighting back against an impeachment inquiry launched by Democratic lawmakers on Sept. 24. The inquiry comes in response to Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in which a White House memo of the call shows Trump asked Zelenskiy to look into a Ukrainian investigation in connection with Hunter Biden.
According to Business Insider, Trump has accused Joe Biden of attempting to dethrone Ukraine’s top prosecutor in 2016, but this has been proven false by Ukrainian authorities, who say they have found zero evidence of such an attempt.
On Wednesday, Trump squared off against House Democrats, packing his increasingly aggressive impeachment defence with name-calling and expletives.
Democratic leaders put the White House on notice that a wide-ranging subpoena would be coming for information about Trump’s actions in the Ukraine controversy, the latest move in the impeachment probe, which is testing the Constitution’s system of checks and balances.
The Democratic lawmakers said they would go to court if necessary.
— With files from the Associated Press
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