Delta Air Lines Inc. apologized Tuesday, June 17, for a tweet intending to congratulate the United States soccer team for its victory over Ghana in a World Cup preliminary match on Monday.
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Delta’s offending tweet super-imposed the final score of the game, 2-1, over a photo illustration that included two pictures to represent each country. For the United States, the graphic showed the Statue of Liberty, and the image of a giraffe was used to represent Ghana.
The photo illustration had a nice aesthetic but was inaccurate in its portrayal of Ghana.
Giraffes are not native to Ghana, a coastal country in West Africa. An animal that is often associated with the continent of Africa was used to misrepresent the Republic of Ghana.
Twitter users criticized the Tweet for its ignorant and offensive nature. One Retweet claimed Delta’s message was “smug, patronizing, and ignorant.” Some Tweets pointed out the irony that Delta even offers flights to Ghana’s capital city, Accra.
Delta, which has over 690,000 followers on Twitter, deleted the tweet and replaced it with an apology. However, that Tweet initially contained a typo that read “precious” rather than “previous” when referring to the original tweet. They later corrected the error.
Delta took further responsibility for their error, claiming the tweet “was both inaccurate and inappropriate.”
A Delta spokeswoman said they are reviewing their social media practices, “To ensure that future images and posts reflect both our values and our global focus,” according to a Fox Sports article.
Photo: Delta/ Twitter
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