The publisher of rock band R.E.M.’s music asked Twitter to remove a satirical video clip containing one of the band’s songs that President Donald Trump‘s account tweeted Friday, CNBC has learned.
A lawyer for Universal Music Publishing Group reached out to the president’s preferred social media platform asking that the video be removed, said a source familiar with the situation, who asked to remain anonymous.
The clip, which was first posted by another Twitter user and runs more than two minutes in length, plays audio from R.E.M.’s early-’90s hit single “Everybody Hurts” over excerpts from Trump’s Feb. 5 State of the Union address.
The clip, clearly meant to mock a selection of lawmakers in Congress, cuts lines from Trump’s speech together with reaction shots of stern-looking politicians whom Trump has criticized in the past. They include Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.
Trump’s tweet with the video clip had been pinned to the top of his account’s page by Friday afternoon.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s questions about the president’s tweet.
Trump has drawn criticism for using copyrighted content before: The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” was often used at the end of Trump campaign rallies and has been used at Trump events since he became president. The band urged Trump to stop using the song, to no avail.
In November, Trump tweeted an image of himself featuring the text overlay “Sanctions are coming,” which HBO took as a clear reference to its “Game of Thrones” series. HBO said at the time that they “would prefer our trademark not be misappropriated for political purposes,” but the president’s tweet was not taken down.
R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills took notice of the use of his band’s song in the video that Trump tweeted Friday.
“Measures have been taken to stop it,” Mills tweeted, adding that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey needs “to get on this.”
Mills said that the president had retweeted the video from Twitter account @CarpeDonktum, who is credited in the video. That account defended using potentially copyrighted material in its own content.
R.E.M. reached a publishing agreement with Universal Music Publishing Group in March 2016.
