Viral Video Criticizing Trump's School Reopening Plan Mysteriously Censored On Twitter

The video’s creator said hundreds contacted him about not being able to see or share his video

Bestselling author Don Winslow created a video urging people to think about what Trump and his administration is asking when it comes to schools reopening this fall and how the president is literally putting children’s lives at risk. He hashtagged the video #notmychild and asked his followers to retweet it. It quickly went viral and just one day later, the video was marked as “sensitive” by Twitter and many were unable to retweet or find it at all.

The two-minute video starts off with narration about a parents’ innate response to protect our children. It then shifts to Trump and his administration’s push for schools to reopen as the country continues to set daily records for new coronavirus cases. Trump “wants to sacrifice your child so the country can appear to be open and working,” Winslow says in part in the video. “But it’s not working. It’s getting worse. Donald Trump wants you to hurt your own child for his reelection.”

The video quickly went viral and soon after, the author was told people were having difficulty finding, retweeting, and watching it. Winslow went back to Twitter, asking the platform why this happened. “Please explain to me & my almost 300,000 followers what happened to my #NotMyChild video today?” he tweeted. “After it trended to #1, many people were unable to retweet it. It has no nudity, no bad language, no violence and nothing to justify ‘sensitive content.'”

He also said he would hold off on sharing any new videos until the service can provide an answer. “This is shady shit,” he said.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1283990036590014464

Political advisor Adam Parkhomenko shared the video, telling his followers that, “This is the ad that Republicans falsely reported in droves (and automatically through bots) to twitter today in an attempt to have censored. Keep retweeting it far and wide.”

Trump has been vocal about reopening schools in person. He even said he would consider pulling federal funding if states didn’t follow his recommendations. He also ordered hospitals to send all their COVID-19 data directly to the White House instead of the CDC and just announced he will not allow the CDC to testify in a hearing next month on reopening schools.

“It is alarming that the Trump administration is preventing the CDC from appearing before the committee at a time when its expertise and guidance is so critical to the health and safety of students, parents, and educators. This lack of transparency does a great disservice to the many communities across the country facing difficult decisions about reopening schools this fall,” House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Bobby Scott said in a statement.

Winslow went from 4,300 followers before the video to more than 300,000 as of this morning. He remains confused as to why his video was treated as sensitive and he is not backing down until he finds out.