A Trump reelection campaign video featuring Linkin Park’s “In the End” was pulled by Twitter Saturday night, after the band filed a copyright-takedown notice demanding its removal.
Linkin Park confirmed Saturday night it had taken action to remove the video. “Linkin Park did not and does not endorse Trump, nor authorize his organization to use any of our music. A cease and desist has been issued,” the group said in a statement on Twitter.
Trump had tweeted the video Saturday, which was previously uploaded by the White House’s head of social media on Friday. A message in that video now reads, “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
The Lumen database of DMCA takedown notices shows a July 18 filing from Machine Shop Entertainment, Linkin Park’s business arm and management company, formally requesting the removal of the video under the U.S.’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act law.
Linkin Park’s late lead singer Chester Bennington — who died two years ago, on July 20, 2017 — had been publicly anti-Trump. In a tweet a few months before his death, Bennington tweeted, “I repeat….. Trump is a greater threat to the USA than terrorism!! We have to take back our voices and stand for what we believe in.”
Donald Trump and his campaign have been subject to frequent objections from artists demanding that he stop using their music in his ads or at his rallies. Those include the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Panic! at the Disco, Pharrell Williams, R.E.M., Aerosmith, Adele, the Village People, and Tom Petty’s family.
Regarding the Trump 2020 campaign’s use of the Linkin Park song, commenters noted the bizarre choice of “In the End.” The lyrics of the song’s chorus are: “I tried so hard / And got so far / But in the end / It doesn’t even matter.”
Source : Variety
