Deceptively Edited Video of Biden Proliferates on Social Media

A video of Joseph R. Biden Jr. deceptively edited to make it appear as though he were admitting to voter fraud was viewed more than 17 million times on social media platforms, according to Avaaz, a progressive human-rights nonprofit that studied the video.

The video was an edited clip from an Oct. 24 appearance by Mr. Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, on the podcast “Pod Save America.” When asked about efforts to bolster election security, Mr. Biden gave a long answer and discussed Obama administration efforts to protect against voter fraud. He added that he had put together “the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.”

The deceptively edited video featuring that part of his statement — taken out of context to make it appear that Mr. Biden supported voter fraud — was shared on dozens of right-wing YouTube channels, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. It was not clear on Monday who had made the edited video.

A spokesman for Mr. Biden’s campaign clarified that he, as seen in the full video, was discussing his efforts to prevent voter fraud.

“We have assembled the most robust and sophisticated team in presidential campaign history to confront voter suppression and fight voter fraud however it may present itself,” said TJ Ducklo, the campaign’s national press secretary.

Social media companies had a haphazard response to the video.

Facebook, where the video had received hundreds of thousands of views, added a label to some versions of the video warning viewers that it lacked context and contained misleading information. But other versions did not receive a label, and on Monday evening it was unclear why.

A post about the video that had more than 110,000 views on the Facebook page of President Trump’s son Eric was labeled. But a post on the Team Trump Facebook page, which was viewed more than 264,000 times, was not.

Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.

Several versions of the video shared on YouTube by President Trump and right-wing figures were viewed more than 800,000 times. There was no label on any of those videos, and Ivy Choi, a YouTube spokeswoman, said the videos did not violate YouTube’s Community Guidelines. YouTube also has a “fact check information panel” above its search results.

When people searched for videos on YouTube with terms like “Joe Biden voter fraud,” the company featured the original, unedited video ahead of the many edited versions, Ms. Choi said.

On Twitter, where several high-profile accounts shared the video, it had more than 8.4 million views and had been shared thousands of times by Monday evening. The company was reviewing the video, a Twitter spokesman said.

The video was one of several shared by right-wing accounts over the weekend that tried to discredit the Biden campaign.

Another video was altered to make it appear as though Mr. Biden were addressing the wrong state during a campaign stop. In the video, he was addressing a crowd in St. Paul, Minn., when he said, “Hello, Minnesota!”

In an edited version of the video, banners behind Mr. Biden were altered to read “Tampa, Florida.” That video had been viewed over one million times on Twitter, according to a report on CNN.