Twitter Suspends Carpe Donktum | Know Your Meme

Twitter continues to moderate President Trump’s presence on their platform by “permanently” suspending Carpe Donktum, Trump’s most infamous meme maker, for copyright violations. President Trump regularly shares memes created by Donktum, which have been the subject of numerous controversies over the last year.

Carpe Donktum’s presence in Trump’s orbit grew over the last two years with pro-Trump video memes in which the President’s head is overlaid clips from movies. His videos have been the source of controversy, both for copyright issues and content.

“The account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of this policy,” a spokesperson for Twitter.

The self-described “memesmith”‘s stature has grown since the tacit approval of the President, garnering more than 270,000 followers before his suspension. Donktum also met with the President last summer during the White House Social Media Summit.

In the past few months, his memes have caused numerous controversies. Last month, the President shared a Dontum meme, in which overlaid Trump’s head over Bill Pullman’s character from the science fiction action film Indepence Day. More recently, Carpe Donktum’s “racist toddler” video, which Trump shared, caused a brief White House outburst because Twitter labeled the meme “manipulated media.” The video features an edit of a viral video of a black and white child playing together, blaming media manipulation as the cause of deteriorating race relations in the United States.

Carpe Donktum’s memes have a recognizable style in that they generally feature the heads of Trump and other prominent cultural and political overlaid atop characters in movies. One video, which features Trump as the shooter in a church massacre based on a scene from The Kingsman, made headlines last year.

The suspension is another tightening in the tense relationship between Twitter and the President. Over the last few weeks, Twitter has begun labeling misinformation and manipulated media found in Trump’s posts. As a result, the President has started threatening Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which absolves website’s from user-generated content as well as giving them the ability to moderate in good faith.