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Trump Jr posts bizarre video from bed complaining about his social media getting fewer likes

‘Hopefully you’re seeing this stuff anyway,’ says president’s son

James Crump
Monday 19 October 2020 19:53 BST
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Trump Jr posts bizarre Instagram video while laying in bed complaining that no-one sees his posts anymore
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Donald Trump Jr has suggested that both Instagram and Twitter are hiding his posts on their platforms, in order to silence “the truth about the Biden crime family.”

Mr Trump Jr took to Instagram on Sunday evening and posted a short video of himself lying down on his bed complaining about the lack of interaction on his posts.

“Hey guys hope you’re doing well. Just watching my algorithm get crushed. I guess I did something to p** off the Instagram gods,” the president’s son said.

“Hopefully you’re seeing this stuff anyway. We’ll do what we can. Talk to you soon!'” the 42-year-old added.

Mr Trump Jr captioned the video: “In IG jail. Watching my post get about 20 per cent of what they were getting last week so if you want turn on post notifications that way maybe you’ll at least see my stuff.”

His Instagram video came a few hours after he claimed on Twitter that the social media platform was limiting the reach of his posts.

He tweeted: “Twitter has been throttling my reach and I’m getting 1/3 the amount of RTs I would normally get. Instagram is doing the same & worse for the last few days.”

He has repeatedly been critical of Twitter for removing or labelling posts that the social media company deems to be spreading misinformation, but did not supply evidence for his claims on Sunday.

Mr Trump Jr also claimed on Twitter: “I guess they don’t want the truth about the Biden crime family out there and they will cover for them at all costs.”

His comments echoed some his father, President Donald Trump, made last Friday, when he accused Democratic challenger Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of being part of a “crime family” during a rambling speech at a rally for seniors.

“I bet Hunter is a middleman, he’s like a vacuum cleaner, he follows his father around collecting ... what a disgrace, it’s a crime family,” the president said, without citing any evidence.

Mr Trump was referring to a controversial article published in the New York Post last week that alleged the Democratic presidential nominee might have met with an adviser to the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, while Hunter was on its board.

On Tuesday, the Post claimed that a repairman from Delaware had acquired an unverified cache of documents that revealed that the Democratic presidential nominee might have been willing to hold a meeting with Burisma adviser Vadym Pozharskyi at the time that Mr Biden led policy on Ukraine for the Obama administration.

The Biden campaign swiftly responded to the claims and told Politico: “The New York Post never asked the Biden campaign about the critical elements of this story.

“Moreover, we have reviewed Joe Biden's official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”

Republicans have repeatedly attempted to find evidence of corruption by the Democratic nominee, but have so far not found any to support their claim that US foreign policy was influenced by Hunter’s position at Burisma.

Questions were raised about the veracity of the story when it emerged that Rudy Giuliani, Mr Trump’s personal lawyer, and Steve Bannon, the president’s former adviser who has been charged with fraud, were involved in giving it to the paper. Mr Giuliani spent months in Ukraine trying to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden.

Facebook limited the spread of the article on its platform, while Twitter blocked users from tweeting out the link to the story and from sending it in private messages, as part of the social media platform’s misinformation policies. Republicans have claimed that the tech giants’ actions constitute censorship.

Mr Trump Jr criticised Twitter for its action in regards to the post and called for an investigation into the social media platform.

“There needs to be an immediate government investigation into @twitter/@jack,” he wrote referring to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

He added: “Not just because of their blatant election interference to protect Biden, but to find out if they're censoring these NY Post stories at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Mr Trump Jr was suspended from Twitter for 12 hours earlier in the year for sharing a video showing doctors falsely claiming hydroxychloroquine was an effective Covid-19 treatment.

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