The United States White House has rephrased a sentence on the launch page of First Lady Melania Trump’s initiative for children’s online safety, after allegations of plagiarism by social media users, The Guardian reported. A booklet about the initiative has striking resemblance to a brochure on online safety released by the Federal Trade Commission in 2014.
Melania Trump launched the “Be Best” campaign on Monday to teach children the importance of social, emotional and physical health. The initiative also aims to promote healthy living, using social media in positive ways and combating opioid abuse, she said.
Launching the initiative, Melania Trump said: “It remains our generation’s moral imperative to take responsibility and help our children manage the many issues they are facing today, including encouraging positive social, emotional, and physical habits.”
The launch page originally said: “Parents, click here to read ‘Talking with Kids about Being Online’, a booklet by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission.” The revised sentence calls it “a Federal Trade Commission booklet, promoted by First Lady Melania Trump”.
An unidentified White House official confirmed that the wording had been changed, as “there seemed to be confusion so we wanted to be clear”, The Guardian reported.
The opening pages of both booklets have a group of 16 pictures depicting digital symbols. All symbols are the same, except that images of mobile phones have been tweaked in the 2014 booklet to make them look more like iPhones.
Melania Trump was accused of plagiarism in 2016 as well, when part of a speech she made at the Republican National Convention was found to be similar to an address by former First Lady Michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic Convention.
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