Twitter has flagged a video posted by MK Galit Distel-Etebaryan (Likud) which appears to show US President Joe Biden falling asleep during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday as "manipulated media," a few hours after Arutz Sheva published a video showing that Biden had not fallen asleep during the meeting.
Distel-Etebaryan wrote above the video: "For some reason, the Israeli media fell asleep itself and did not pay attention to this historic segment. I thought you should get to see it anyway."
Arutz Sheva was among the outlets which reported that the video was misleading and that video from other angles, as well as a close-up of the original footage, showed that the president was awake and paying attention while Prime Minister Bennett was speaking.
Twitter stated in its explanation for flagging the video: "Video of Joe Biden meeting with Israeli prime minister is misleadingly cropped, fact-checkers and journalists say. Reuters, a CNN fact-checker and journalists say a viral video of a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House has been cropped and is misleading. The original footage shows Biden talking and responding to Bennett only seconds later. The meeting marked Joe Biden and Naftali Bennett’s first meeting since the Israeli prime minister assumed office in June."
MK Distel-Etebaryan wrote in response to Twitter's action: "I uploaded a video taken from the White House's official YouTube account (!). As is. When I uploaded the video I did not write that Biden fell asleep. I did not write anything except a recommendation to watch the attached section."
"I have no idea if Biden is sleeping, bored or drowsy I know one thing - his body language does not respect the person sitting in front of him, and by chance that is the Prime Minister of Israel. No citizen wants his country leader to receive such treatment," she added.
"Twitter, who have added a warning to the video, are welcome to pass it on to the White House.
"I did not touch it, I did not edit it, I did not even say that Biden was asleep. I took this video and it went viral around the world. Now ask yourself what fascinated almost six million people?" she asked.