In an embarrassing gaffe, Twitter mistakenly labelled the accounts of Norway's Foreign Ministry, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as ''Nigerian government organisations and officials''. The Elon Musk-owned social media site labelled Norway's foreign ministry as a "Nigeria government organization", while Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Store and Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt were also mischaracterised.
In a sarcastic tweet, Norway's foreign ministry pointed out the bizarre mix-up and complained to Twitter on Tuesday about being labelled as an organisation representing Nigeria. They tweeted that while they “enjoy excellent bilateral relations” and “alphabetical vicinity” with Nigeria, they would prefer to be labelled as Norway.
The tweet reads, ''Dear @TwitterSupport, 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 @jonasgahrstore and Foreign Minister @AHuitfeldt.''
See the tweet here:
Dear @TwitterSupport, 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😉
— Norway MFA (@NorwayMFA) December 13, 2022
P.S. That also goes for Prime Minister @jonasgahrstore and Foreign Minister @AHuitfeldt 🇳🇴 pic.twitter.com/wr6cb3yv2W
Notably, Twitter places labels and small flag icons on some accounts to signal affiliation with governments. Of late, the site has also been plagued by automated mislabelling of tweets.
Meanwhile, internet users were quick to notice the gaffe and mocked Twitter through funny memes and jokes. Many poked fun at the fact that the company now increasingly relies on automation for account verification after Elon Musk laid off about half of his staff. One user jokingly said, ''They must have fired the one guy who knows how to find both countries on the map.'' Another commented, ''Good luck getting a response from support. That office is probably down to an answering machine at this point.''
A third wrote, ''Now that Norway is an annex of Nigeria, my Nigerian passport should at least grant me free entry into Norway now. No?'' Yet another said, ''Norway and Nigeria are now united by Twitter and oil.'' A fifth wrote, ''Norway, Nigeria.... Both start with the letter N. That's enough according to actual Twitter standards under Musk.''
