Social media users are sharing a screenshot of an alleged tweet by US President Joe Biden, who says he is proud to see Coca-Cola “training their staff in cultural reoccupation.” It looks like this tweet was produced.
The alleged tweet reads: “I am proud to see Coca-Cola educating their staff in cultural re-occupation. The decoupling is because the way white people talk leaves minorities confused. Black people communicate in a certain way and me and my staff know how such people talk and it’s time for white people to learn to do the same #justfortethasteofit #dietcoke. Reports of the claim can be seen here on Facebook, here and Twitter here , here .
Comments on the claim include: “Your president …. he probably thought you would not see it because you can not use the internet.” And “Did old Joe just say black Americans can’t understand standard English?”
Reuters found no record of this tweet. A “Coca-Cola” or “Coca Cola” keyword search in Biden’s timeline returned no results (bit.ly/3qNF6p0, bit.ly/3pQCuWi). Politwoops, a ProPublica project that deletes archives from politicians, also shows no record of the alleged tweet, suggesting it was probably fabricated (here).
The demand is rising amid the setback in the direction of Coca-Cola, after a video distributed online showed diversity training materials featuring guidance with the words “try to be less white.” Some users on social media attribute the content to the company, as reported by Newsweek here. Coca-Cola attributed the learning materials to a course offered online (here, here).
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence that US President Joe Biden ever tweeted about Coca-Cola educating ‘their staff in cultural re-occupation’.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work here to check out social media posts.