Twitter’s new boss Elon Musk on Wednesday responded to Norway’s foreign ministry’s post, wherein they highlighted how the social media site mistakenly labelled top Norwegian diplomats and politicians as hailing from Nigeria. In one word, the billionaire apologised for the gaffe and wrote, “Sorry!”
The mix-up was pointed in a rather mocked up tweet by Norway’s foreign ministry on Tuesday to Twitter support. In the post, they mentioned that the Twitter handles of Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt were also showing them as Nigerian government officials.
“As much as we enjoy our excellent bilateral relations and close alphabetical vicinity with Nigeria, we would much appreciate if you could label us as Norway. P.S. That also goes for Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Anniken Huitfeldt,” Norway’s foreign ministry tweeted.
As per Twitter’s recent updates following the October takeover by Musk, labels on government accounts give additional context for profiles extensively involved in diplomacy and geopolitics.
Sorry!— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 14, 2022
Furthermore, these labels include a small icon of a flag to notify the account’s status as a government account and of a podium for state-affiliated media. However, lately mislabelling of accounts has been an issue on Twitter.
On Tuesday when the issue was highlighted by Norway’s foreign ministry, memes flooded the micro-blogging site, with one user calling the amalgamation of two nations as ‘Norgeria’.
“So, it’s actually been Norwegians all along that keep sending everyone those letters about a dead prince and advance fees,” wrote another in reference to the fraudulent ‘Nigeria letters’.
Norwegian PM and the foreign minister, however, did not release any statement pertaining to the matter on Twitter.
The mistake, which stayed for hours, stands corrected at the time of writing this report.
