Musk's Twitter goofs up label of Norwegian PM & FM as 'Nigerian' officials; gets pulled

CEO Elon Musk's Twitter on Tuesday got pulled by the government of Norway for mislabelling the verification check on the account of Norway’s Foreign Ministry's head Anniken Huitfeldt and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store as "Nigerian government officials" and organisations.  Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted, calling out at the error, that Norway and Nigeria weren't the same. Both Norway's Prime Minister Store, and foreign minister Huitfeldt, were labelled incorrectly as “Nigeria government official”. Twitteratis joked that it was in fact difficult to tell Nigeria and Norway apart. 

“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," wrote Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs pointing at the mistake. 

'No need to change this..' Twitteratis joke

Twitter labels the accounts underneath the verification blue badge to depict their affiliation with government organisations but the automated labeling was botched up by the platform. The inaccurate label with the wrong designation and country for Norway officials appeared for hours before the ministry called out to Elon Musk for it. The accounts were later rectified to the “Norwegian government organisation.”

As the Norwegian officials declared Twitter's goof up, commenters swarmed to mock the situation. "But you are as close to Nigerian princes as it gets. No need to change this," one wrote. "Visa-free travel for my people?" another joked. "Or at least labelNigeria MFA as Norway, just to maintain consistency," the third user said. "They must have fired the one guy who knows how to find both countries on the map," another said. 

Elon Musk also created a stir as he announced that Twitter will soon scrap the blue verification tick as they were given in a corrupt manner. “Twitter management and board lied to make their user numbers seem artificially higher, so turned a blind eye to fake/spam accounts," he wrote. Furthermore Musk accused Twitter's previous management and board, who he claimed, "lied to make their user numbers seem artificially higher, so turned a blind eye to fake/spam accounts."