White House deletes tweet after Twitter users intervene

The White House on Wednesday said it deleted a tweet after Twitter users flagged the post as lacking context.

In its tweet, the White House said that it was "thanks to President Biden's leadership" that US pensioners had received the biggest benefit hike in 10 years.

But a note by Twitter generated by users argued that the boost was in fact due to an automatic adjustment triggered by high inflation -- a mechanism that has existed since 1972.

The note was part of Twitter’s Birdwatch program, which adds comments to relevant posts if enough people with a wide range of opinions find them "helpful."

"The tweet was not complete," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said when asked about the deleted tweet. "It did not have that context."

Elon Musk, the world's richest person, who took ownership of Twitter last week, hailed the correction saying the feature that produced it "was awesome".

"Our goal is to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation," Musk tweeted.

US conservatives complain of censorship on the major social networks and Musk staunchly defends looser moderation of content on Twitter in the name of free speech.

But critics and government regulators defend content rules as key to limiting harassment, hate speech and misinformation.