Instagram Censors Donald Trump Jr.'s Chuck Schumer Meme

Instagram's fact-checkers flagged a meme posted by Donald Trump Jr. that targets Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats. Independent fact-checkers working with the social media site labeled the image "partly false."

The meme features a timeline highlighting four dates between January 31st and March 13th in which prominent government Democrats attack President Trump's ban of flights to China. Included in the list, a claim that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the congressional Democrats have a "meltdown saying the China Travel Ban is part of Trump's war against immigrants." However, this tweet never happened.

According to Lead Stories, the claim originated in an article by American Thinker on February 29th, which claimed Schumer "quietly deletes his tweet criticizing Trump's China travel ban as 'premature' and 'war against immigrants.'"

However, according to Twitter's Legal, Policy and Trust & Safety Lead Vijaya Gadde, Schumer's tweet never happened. The article in American Thinker has since been updated.

This SenSchumer</a> tweet screenshot appears to be a fake: <a href="https://t.co/iUsNEeGoUY">https://t.co/iUsNEeGoUY</a><br><br>Want to see if a politician deleted a tweet? We have a partnership with <a href="https://twitter.com/politwoops?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">politwoops that allows you to see that information (details here: https://t.co/lBVPOo1Tt4) https://t.co/LKJPoiqeUT

— Vijaya Gadde (@vijaya) February 29, 2020

Due to its inclusion, Trump Jr.'s post has been blurred out by Instagram, requiring users to read the fact-checkers' review before seeing the meme.

Instagram launched its fact-checking initiative in December 2019 to combat misinformation on the platform. The app currently works with 45 third-party fact-checkers certified by the International Fact-Checking Network, according to Business Insider.

Despite the flagging, the meme remains on Trump Jr.'s Instagram page.