SHENZHEN, CHINA — Tencent may have accidentally posted the real numbers of infections and deaths from the coronavirus, figures astronomically higher than what the Chinese government has been telling everyone.
On February 1st, Tencent's homepage, titled "Epidemic Situation Tracker" showed confirmed cases of the coronavirus in China as 154,023, ten times the official figure at the time.
It also listed the number of suspected cases as 79,808, four times the official figure.
The number of cured cases was a mere 269, well below the official claim of 300.
Most worryingly, however, was the death toll which stood at 24,589 which was tremendously higher than the 300 officially listed for that day.
Tencent then wiped the numbers and updated them to reflect the government's 'official' ones.
According to Taiwan News, netizens noticed that Tencent has on at least three separate occasions posted extremely high numbers, only to quickly change them to adhere to the government-approved numbers.
This jump or swap of numbers has led netizens to believe Tencent has two sets of data, the real data, and 'processed' data.