A Copyright Complaint From R.E.M. Got a Trump Tweet Removed from Twitter

A Copyright Complaint From R.E.M. Got a Trump Tweet Removed from Twitter

A fter declaring a completely unnecessary state of emergency Friday, the president tweeted a video made by a right-wing "memesmith" who goes by the name Carpe Donktum. That would be hell of a sentence in any year prior to 2017, but the story became even wilder when ‘90s rockstars R.E.M. successfully petitioned Twitter to remove the video. 

According to CNBC, the band took action because the clip, which mockingly mashed up Democrats’ reactions to Trump's to State of the Union, was soundtracked by their classic ballad "Everybody Hurts."


The band’s official Twitter account made their stance on all things Trump clear shortly after the president posted the video, and bassist Mike Mills posted a tweet of his own imploring Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to remove the clip. 

As CNBC reports, R.E.M. followed up with a copyright infringement notice filed by their publisher, and shortly thereafter users found attempts to play the video in the presidential tweet greeted with a "Content not found" notice. The tweet was eventually deleted.