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In August 2015, former president Jimmy Carter announced that he had cancer which had spread from his liver to other parts of his body. However, after less than four months of treatment, the 39th president was able to announce to his fellow congregants at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, that he was free from cancer, as the Washington Post reported: Almost three years later, several posts went viral on social media that contained language very similar to Carter's original 2015 cancer announcement. For example, on 20 August 2018 a Twitter user with the handle @clae48 posted a Prayers for President Carter graphic bearing the logo of the Columbus, Ohio, ABC affiliate WSYX: That tweet was shared 26,000 times within a week, and two days later a Facebook user named Sheree Williams posted the same graphic with the same message, garnering 156,000 shares in one week and prompting inquiries from our readers: The August 2018 rumors were outdated information. The text of the social media posts, as well as the graphic, were both taken from a 13 August 2015 Facebook post by WSYX. In August 2018, the station added an editor's note emphasizing that the original post dated from 2015 and was not a current story. The former president did not experience a re-emergence of his cancer in August 2018, as the Carter Center pointed out in a public response to the misleading memes. The 93-year-old Carter still has no cancer, the center confirmed:
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