Musk apologises to Norway after Twitter mislabelled ministry account

Elon Musk apologises to Norway after Twitter mislabelled foreign ministry account and its Prime Minister as belonging to Nigeria

• Norway’s foreign affairs Twitter account flagged the error to Musk on Tuesday
• Jokingly, the ministry said ‘as much as we enjoy our excellent bilateral relations and close alphabetical vicinity with Nigeria,’ it would like to be labelled correctly
• ‘Sorry!’ Musk replied a day later, by which point the error had been fixed

Elon Musk has apologised to Norway after Twitter mislabelled the country’s foreign ministry and its staff as belonging to Nigeria on the platform.

The English-language Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Twitter account flagged the error to the Billionaire in a post on Tuesday. It shared a screenshot of its own Twitter page, which showed the username ‘Norway MFA’ with a label underneath, that it had circled in red, which said’ ‘Nigeria government organisation’.

‘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 account posted. ‘P.S. That also goes for Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt,’ it added.

A day after the post, Musk – who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October – replied directly to the post, simply saying: ‘Sorry!’. By this point, the account was correctly labelled as a Norwegian government organisation.

Billionaire Elon Musk has apologised to Norway after Twitter mislabelled the country’s foreign ministry and its staff as belonging to Nigeria (pictured) on the platform

A day after the post, Musk – who acquired Twitter for $44 billion in October – replied, simply saying: ‘Sorry!’ (pictured), by which point, the account was correctly labelled as a Norwegian government organisation

Such labels are applied by Twitter to distinguish official government accounts from potential impersonators, as means of cracking down on misinformation.

It is distinct from the more general ‘blue checkmark’ function, which distinguishes authenticated accounts of notable people or organisations – that can include celebrities, politicians, charities and businesses – among other categories.

‘Labels on government accounts provide additional context for accounts heavily engaged in geopolitics and diplomacy,’ Twitter’s website says about the markers.

‘Labels on state-affiliated accounts provide additional context about accounts that are controlled by certain official representatives of governments, state-affiliated media entities and individuals associated with those entities.’

‘The label appears on the profile page of the relevant Twitter account and on the Tweets sent by and shared from these accounts,’ it notes. 

‘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 account for Norway’s foreign ministry posted on Tuesday (pictured). ‘P.S. That also goes for Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt,’ it added

The official Twitter account for Norway’s Prime Minister was also labelled as being a Nigerian Government official by the social media platform (pictured)

Several Twitter users made jokes following the error.

‘Nogeria has been born,’ one Twitter users joked, combining Norway and Nigeria.

‘Since we’re now one big country, Norgeria, you’ll let Haaland play for us at the next AFCON and World Cup, yeah?’ a Nigerian football fan joked, suggesting Norway’s footballing superstar Erling Haaland join his team.

Another jested: ‘They must have fired the one guy who knows how to find both countries on the map,’ in reference to Twitter sacking thousands of staff since Musk’s takeover on October 27.  

In bad news for Musk, a report by Insider Intelligence on Tuesday say Twitter will see an exodus of users due to changes being made by the platform, and flat revenue growth for the next two years.

Experts and users have had concerns about Twitter’s ability to fight misinformation after it let go about half of its staff, including those involved in content moderation.

Elon Musk (pictured) purchased Twitter on October 27 for $44 billion

Twitter, which went private in October, will lose more users in the United States than in any of the countries Insider Intelligence tracks, the report said, adding that monthly users will fall to 50.5 million in 2024, the lowest level since 2014.

‘Users will start to leave the platform next year as they grow frustrated with technical issues and the proliferation of hateful or other unsavory content,’ said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence.

The market research firm said Twitter’s revenue growth will be flat for the next two years as revenue and staffing losses have made it more difficult for Musk to ship new products to increase usage and engagement on the platform.

Musk in November attributed a ‘massive drop in revenue’ to civil rights groups that have pressured brands to pause their Twitter ads. The social media firm earns about 90 percent of its revenue from selling advertisements. 

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