Twitter removed this tweet from Donald Trump: 'My blood IS the vaccine!!!!!'
On Oct. 6, 2020, President Donald Trump tweeted misinformation claiming that COVID-19 is less deadly than the flu. Twitter hid the tweet so that viewers must click 'view' to read it. A warning is now also attached: 'This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information related to COVID-19. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.' A post on Facebook shares two images that make it appear that another tweet from Trump was blocked by Twitter. The first shows what looks like a tweet from the president at 3:23 p.m. on Oct. 5. 'My blood IS the vaccine!!!!!' The second image shows a screenshot of four tweets from Trump and what was a fifth tweet that has been removed. The message says: 'This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules.' This post was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We reached out to Twitter about the post but did not immediately hear back. Here's what we know. Trump didn't tweet that his blood is a vaccine. The screenshot of Trump's Twitter feed that shows a message saying a tweet was removed stemmed from a separate tweet from the commander in chief: one posted at 5:54 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time Oct. 5 that included the email address of a New York post reporter, according to the website Trump Twitter Archive. He tweeted the same message again at 7:56 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, only this time he swapped out the reporter's email for her Twitter handle and @NYPost. As the Twitter account @hoaxeye noted, Trump never tweeted 'my blood is the vaccine,' according Trump Twitter Archive. The archive shows other tweets that Twitter has flagged - like the one claiming COVID-19 can be less lethal than the flu - but nothing about his blood being a vaccine. We also searched an archive of Trump's deleted tweets for the word 'vaccine' on Facba.se but found none. Searching more broadly online, we also found no news coverage about Trump claiming his blood was a vaccine, or articles about Twitter removing such a tweet. It's unbelievable that Twitter deleting the tweet that appears in the Facebook post wouldn't draw wide media attention. News outlets around the world have reported on past instances of the social media platform hiding tweets by the president. We rate this Facebook post Pants on Fire.
We rate this Facebook post Pants on Fire.