KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Deputy minister Datuk Seri Ti Lian Ker has deleted his misleading tweet after he was slammed last night for sharing a false claim on the involvement of billionaire Bill Gates with the Covid-19.

Today, Ti denied claiming that the pandemic was planned and said he was merely making a "tongue-in-cheek” comment against an article of the conspiracy theory which he is allegedly questioning.

"The earlier tweet which I have cut and paste was an error and deleted,” the deputy national unity minister from MCA posted.

"My statement was in reference to this article which was shared via WhatsApp and thus my tongue in cheek tweet.”

Earlier today, he had said that his initial offending post was made of quotes "copied from the article” which he then said has been "shared, debunked and continued to be shared”.

He attached with his tweet an article titled "Proof that the pandemic was planned and with purpose” from a little-known blog called Madison Area Lyme Support Group.

The post dated September 2020 was written by James Fetzer, a well-known conspiracy theorist and Holocaust denier.

The article claiming that Gates is trying to "microchip” the world population using a Covid-19 vaccine has been debunked many times since, and is downright false.

Last night Ti had posted a tweet that said Bill Gates "organised a coronavirus pandemic exercise, right before it happened”.

"This pandemic exercise was called Event201 and took place in October 2019, literally right before the outbreak.

"Their conclusion was that all of humanity must be vaccinated,” the tweet said, without even mentioning that the remarks were quotes taken from another source.

Under Emergency (Essential Powers) (No. 2) Ordinance 202, individuals who create or publish fake news on Covid-19 or the Emergency proclamation can face a fine of up to RM100,000 and imprisonment.

Last week, the police said they have opened 12 investigation papers under the law in connection with the circulation of fake news on Covid-19.