Twitter Takes Down Trump’s ‘Dark Knight’ Tweet Over Alleged Copyright Violation

When President Trump posted a video on Twitter Monday, it had garnered about a million views in less than three hours, but by Tuesday it was gone.

What happened? Buzzfeed News reports:

BuzzFeed News has learned that Warner Bros. Pictures filed a copyright infringement complaint to have the video taken down because it uses part of the score from the studio’s 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises.

In a statement Tuesday night, Warner Bros. confirmed it was taking action over the video.

“The use of Warner Bros.’ score from The Dark Knight Rises in the campaign video was unauthorized,” a spokesperson said. “We are working through the appropriate legal channels to have it removed.”

On Tuesday night, attempts to watch the video in Trump’s tweet were met with a message saying it was no longer available “in response to a report by the copyright owner.”

What Was In the Video?

Trump is obviously gearing up for 2020, and the video he shared showed prominent Democrats — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and even comedians like Rosie O’Donnell and Amy Schumer — paired with images of the president since he took office. Some of the Trump scenes included his meetings with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and other foreign heads of state.

The text in the video read: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they call you racist.”

There are no words spoken in the video. The viewer hears The Dark Night score along with the images until eventually, Trump raises his fist.

After the president shared the video, many began pointing out that it was copyrighted material.

“Warner Bros. is a subsidiary of WarnerMedia, which was recently acquired by AT&T after the Justice Department failed in its attempt to block the merger, one of Trump’s 2016 campaign promises,” Buzzfeed News notes.

“The White House did not respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.”