Open up Twitter right now and you probably won't need to scroll for more than a few minutes before you see something that someone shouldn't have tweeted. At the very least, something they should have thought about for a little longer before hitting send. A good rule of thumb is to save something in your drafts and revisit it a short while later after you've had a chance to think about it.
An even better idea is if you're not sure you should tweet something, then maybe don't tweet it at all. Advice that has arrived a little too late for whoever is in charge of Game's Twitter account. As first spotted by Eurogamer, An image accompanied by a caption made it onto the Game timeline today reminding potential customers that you can upgrade your phone through the retailer.
The image the social media team decided to go with, however, was pretty problematic. It shows someone placing their finger on a new iPhone alongside three older models with smashed screens. The meme reads that the owner is shushing the phone, saying they ain't gonna treat it like the others. Shortly after the decision to send the tweet was made, a number of people highlighted that it was making light of domestic violence to sell phones.
“Making light of domestic abuse to sell preowned phones. GAME really need a new social media team if they think this is acceptable,” one reply reads. Not that a joke like this is okay at any time, but another tweet highlighted the particularly poor timing of the message being relayed by Game. “You made and posted an ad mocking domestic violence on Valentine's Day after the Super Bowl which has a high spike of visits to the emergency room for partners,” it reads.
Whoever sent the tweet quickly realized the mistake they had made, likely thanks to the backlash, and it has since been removed. What many are still waiting for is an acknowledgment and an apology for posting it in the first place, something many are currently calling for on social media. At the time of typing this, Game has not done any such thing.