The New England Patriots’ social media team had a great idea in mind when they planned to thank their followers for helping them become the first NFL team to surpass the one million follower mark. The only problem is that they had no filtering process and were taken advantage of by someone likely playing a cruel prank.
Here is the tweet the Patriots were asking their fans to retweet in order to receive a custom Patriots-themed avatar:
We're saying thanks to @patriots' 1million followers w/ custom digital Pats jerseys – RT for yours! #1MillionPatriots pic.twitter.com/u2SfidCb9e
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 13, 2014
Cool idea for the team’s followers, right? Retweet that tweet, get a sweet, customized avatar. Fans would love it.
That seemed like a great idea until someone with a racist Twitter handle exposed a little problem with the automated system and ended up with this tweet:
The team later apologized to their million-plus followers for creating that avatar.
We apologize for the regrettable tweet that went out from our account. Our filtering system failed & we will be more vigilant in the future.
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 14, 2014
