Social media users share a screenshot of an alleged tweet by US President Joe Biden, who says minorities cannot use computers properly because they do not have ‘resources’, ‘education’ and ‘commitment to their communities’. It looks like this tweet was produced.
At a town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on February 17, 2021, while talking about reducing vaccine intake among black and Hispanic communities, Biden said: ‘The other part is: many people do not know how to register not. Not everyone in the community – in the Spanish and African American community, especially in rural areas in the far and / or downtown – knows how to use it – knows how to get online to determine how to get in line with the COVID vaccination at the Walgreens or at the relevant store. So are we: I’m committed to spending a billion dollars on public education to help people figure out how to get there. ‘It can be seen in a transcript of the White House here and in a video of the event here.
The alleged tweet, which was apparently posted by the account @JoeBiden on February 18 at 15:53, reads: ‘My comment about minorities who cannot use the internet has been taken out of context. They do not know how to use it, but just do not get better. These people do not know about computers because they do not have enough resources, education and their overall commitment in their communities. It’s not that they’re dumb but just do nothing. Hope this fixes it. “Examples of posts that share a screenshot of the tweet can be seen here, here, here and here with captions, including:” This is more racist than his previous statement on minorities “and” Lifelong racists. “
All the tweets from @JoeBiden have a flag under his hand and the words “US government official”, as seen twitter.com/JoeBiden , but the alleged tweet does not have this marker.
Reuters found no record of this tweet. On February 18, Reuters searched the tweets of both its accounts (@JoeBiden and @POTUS) (twitter.com/JoeBiden , twitter.com/POTUS/) and did not find the alleged tweet. A keyword search in both Biden’s Twitter accounts with phrases from the alleged tweet also returned no results (here , here , here). Politwoops, a ProPublica project that deletes archives from politicians, also shows no record of the alleged tweet, suggesting it was probably fabricated (here).
Reuters also could not find that Biden made these comments on his Facebook or Instagram accounts (www.instagram.com/potus/?hl=en, here, www.facebook.com/joebiden, www.facebook.com/ POTUS, here, here).
Reuters could not find any evidence that Biden made these comments in any media reports, nor on the White House website (here), which provided statements, releases, speeches and comments by Biden and his administration (www.whitehouse.gov/? s = dumb, here).
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Reuters rejected another fabricated Biden tweet in February 2021 (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence that Biden ever made these remarks about minorities’ use of the Internet and computers.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.