News

Norway begs Twitter to stop calling it Nigeria

Norway begs Twitter to stop calling it Nigeria
Elon Musk confirms plan to increase Twitter character limit from 280 to …
content.jwplatform.com

Twitter appeared to have gotten countries beginning with 'N' mixed up.

On Tuesday, Norway's foreign ministry pleaded with the social media platform to correct a label on their account that says it is an organisation representing ... Nigeria.

Accounts with government affiliation typically have a small flag icon that explains which country's government they are from in order to "provide additional context for accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy."

(Though it isn't helpful if the country is incorrect).

"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,” the ministry tweeted jokingly earlier today (December 13) along with a winking-face emoji.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

The request appeared to amuse people as the tweet has gone viral with over 66,000 likes.

Meanwhile, it wasn't just Norway's foreign ministry that was affected, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt were also both labelled as a "Nigeria government official".

"P.S. That also goes for Prime Minister @jonasgahrstore and Foreign Minister @AHuitfeldt," the MFA added in the original tweet.

Though the viral tweet must have caught the attention of the Twitter gods, who have since corrected the mistake on the three accounts that are now back to being a "Norwegian government organization."

Elsewhere, Twitter is giving its paid-for verification feature another go after it was paused due to a number of impersonator accounts that paid for a blue tick to troll big companies and public figures on the original rollout last month.

It remains at the price point of $8 per month - though, for those on Apple devices using the Twitter app, the fee has increased to $11.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)
x