Elon Musk has apologized after a Norwegian government department was mistakenly labeled on Twitter as being based in Nigeria. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tagged Twitter Support after noticing that it had been incorrectly tagged as a “Nigeria government organization” on the social-media platform.
Sharing a screenshot of the error, the government department, posting under the handle NorwayMFA, tweeted: “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 tweet added “that also goes” for Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt.
The post highlighting the mistake soon racked up over 17,000 retweets and more than 165,000 likes in the space of 24 hours.
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 🇳🇴 pic.twitter.com/wr6cb3yv2W
— Norway MFA (@NorwayMFA) December 13, 2022
“Americans and geography have a difficult relationship,” one Twitter user wrote, with another commenting: “If Elon says you’re Nigerian, you’re Nigerian. No appeals.”
“They must have fired the one guy who knows how to find both countries on the map,” a third wrote, while a fourth added: “They will fix it any minute now. They’ve just been on a lunch break for the past 6 weeks.”
Twitter has since fixed the issue, with Musk replying to the original tweet with a brief apology that simply read: “Sorry!”
Ane Haavardsdatter Lunde, the communications adviser for the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Newsweek: “The erroneous labeling was discovered Tuesday morning, we immediately took the appropriate steps, and by afternoon, this was corrected by Twitter.
“We are a bit amused to see that this is by far our most popular tweet ever, with 17 million impressions so far, and counting.”
The mistake comes amid another eventful week for Musk at the helm of Twitter.
On Monday, the 51-year-old faced a significant backlash on the platform after posting a tweet the day before that hit out at President Joe Biden‘s soon-to-be retired chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.
In the tweet, the billionaire also appeared to mock pronoun use, writing: “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci.”
Musk then stoked further online discussion after tweeting a cryptic post that simply read: “Follow 🐰” which led some to accuse him of inciting others to join QAnon.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Twitter reportedly disbanded its Trust and Safety advisory council, which had monitored hate speech, child exploitation, suicide, self-harm and other concerns on the platform.
Footage also surfaced online appearing to show Musk being booed while onstage at a Dave Chappelle gig in San Francisco on December 11.
