A tweet shared by President Donald Trump was removed by Twitter for violating community guidelines about sharing false statistics and misinformation about the coronavirus.
Originally posted to the site by a QAnon supporter, the removed tweet claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “updated its number” to show only 6% of COVID-19 deaths were from the disease, while the rest were due to “other serious illnesses.” The tweet was retweeted by the president.
The tweet is no longer available, and contains a banner that notes it violated Twitter’s rules.
While the CDC’s public statistic page does say 6% of pandemic deaths were caused solely by the coronavirus, further data in the report indicates the other 94% of COVID-19 deaths all had contributing factors known as comorbidities, such as diabetes, obesity, and susceptibility to heart or lung diseases.
According to Johns Hopkins University, almost 182,885 have died from the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. The CDC has said those with preexisting health conditions are at much higher risk for infection and serious complications, including death.
The removal of the tweet is part of a much larger push on the part of Twitter to fact-check large and small political voices on the site, including flagging misleading posts and removing tweets that spread false information. The social media platform has removed several tweets shared by Trump in the past few months for violating site rules about spreading misinformation.
Digital Trends reached out to Twitter for comment about the tweet’s removal. We will update this story when we hear back.
