British rock band Queen are trying – and failing – to get US President Donald Trump to stop using their songs in his online campaign videos.
The band’s management says it is an “uphill battle” and has “repeatedly taken issue with the Trump campaign”.
“The band itself has been quite outspoken on the subject”, a spokesman said.
Earlier this week, the campaign used the 1977 hit We Will Rock You on the social media platform Triller.
The video has not been taken down.
Against their will
The US president has a history, the band say, of using Queen songs against their will.
In 2016, during the Republican National Convention, Mr Trump walked onto the stage with We are the Champions as backing music.
“We are frustrated by the repeated unauthorised use of the song after a previous request to desist, which has obviously been ignored by Mr Trump and his campaign,” the band said at the time.
In October last year, another campaign video was released by the Trump campaign on Twitter, this time using We Will Rock You.
That example was taken down after the band objected.
But now Mr Trump’s campaign has used the band’s music on his new social media account on Triller, which he joined over the weekend.
The social media platform is seen as a rival to TikTok.
Queen “continues to oppose and try to block usage of their songs”, their spokesperson said.
However, two days since the video was uploaded to Triller, it is still live, and has clocked up nearly one million views.
Triller has not responded to a request for comment.
Copyright infringement has already led to a number of political videos being removed from social media accounts.
Last year Mr Trump had a video removed from Twitter because it unlawfully used the music from a Batman film.
And last month Linkin Park issued a cease and desist notice after the president retweeted a video featuring one of their songs.
Source: BBC
