Twitter users flagged a tweet from President Joe Biden after he touted that the “most common gas price” in the country is $3.19, as opposed to the average gas price.
“Right now, the most common price at gas stations across the country is $3.19 per gallon,” Biden tweeted from the presidential account @POTUS on Sunday. “That’s progress,” he added.
Twitter users later flagged the tweet under the context feature: “Readers added context that they thought people might want to know.”
The additional context note then stated:
Biden is referring to the “most common gas price” as oppose to the average gas price of $3.800 (11/6/22). The most common is the “mode” gas price. Neither are wrong and politicians tend to reference the one that is lower. The mode diminishes high gas states from the equation.
The note also included links to a Wall Street Journal article and the American Automobile Association (AAA) gas price tracker website.
While the flagging was not a correction of Biden’s tweet, it notes that the tweet was missing context as it did not mention the national average gas price, which is 60 cents higher than the most common gas price.
According to the Journal, the most common — the mode — is used by GasBuddy.com, while the national average — the median — is used by AAA.
On Monday, the national average gas price was recorded at $3.804 after reaching a record high of $5.016 in June. Gas prices have increased by 18.8 percent since the Biden administration came into office.
This is the second time within the past week that a Biden administration Twitter account has been updated with additional context by Twitter users.
On Wednesday, the White House tweeted that seniors would get the “biggest increase in their social security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.”
After Twitter users added context to the tweet, noting that social security checks are adjusted to the rate of inflation, the White House deleted the post.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.