McDonald’s Compromised Twitter Account Posts Anti-Trump Tweet

Twitter has been yet the source of another enterprise faux pas, after the McDonald’s account tweeted criticism against US president Donald Trump.

The tweet, now deleted read: “@realDonaldTrump You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands.”

While President Trump is not one to refrain from sharing his views on Twitter, a large corporation displaying such a public opinion is seen as controversial, given a firm like McDonald’s would aim to appeal to a broad audience, including those for and against Trump.

Not loving it

McDonald’s reacted quickly and took down the tweet, but not before it was screen grabbed by Twitter users and spread across the Internet.

The @MCDonaldsCorp account posted a tweet indicating that the controversial tweet was not something the company approved.

“Twitter notified us tat our account was compromised. We deleted the tweet, secured our account and are now investigating this,” the company said.

Whether this was done through an external hack that saw someone with anti-Trump opinions get control of the McDonald’s Twitter account, or the disgruntled actions of an employee of McDonald’s with access to the company’s Twitter account, remains to be seen.

President Trump as thus far been a highly controversial president, declaring prominent news outlets of spreading ‘fake news’ and voicing controversial opinions and seemingly unfounded statements on social media. So it is unsurprising that other Twitter users would lash out on him, either directly or through a company’s social media accounts.

For marketing purposes, having a presence on a social network is almost a necessity. However, the McDonald’s ‘tweetgate’ indicates that companies need to be careful with who they allow to access their social media accounts and how they can handle incidents when a controversial message is posted without true corporate approval.

Twitter hacks are not uncommon, with high-profile accounts having been recently hacked by supporters of the controversial Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan.

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