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Many people were concerned last weekend that the Twitter account for Vodafone may have been hacked. This was after an offensive post from the account appeared online.
“Vodafone UK is fed up of dirty homos and is going after beaver”
The post was visible only momentarily as Vodafone’s employees were quick to respond by deleting the post and immediately addressing the concern. Amid the apologies, they also assured people that this is not a hacking incident.
Instead, the post was done by an employee of the company who has decided to break the rules. The employee is assigned to the customer service center in Stoke and is currently suspended indefinitely. As to why the individual was not immediately terminated, Vodafone has given no explanations other than stating that the matter is being handled and investigated internally.
Vodafone currently has over 8,000 subscribers on Twitter and the number is still growing. The account is used to handle customer inquiries and complaints and has served as a very important online hotline.
This misuse of social network tools is not an isolated case. This has already happened to other companies such as the Telegraph and Virgin Atlantic. While Twitter and Facebook does allow companies to connect directly with their clients, this also opens up a new channel that should be safeguarded carefully lest another errant employee decides to have some fun.
Several Virgin Atlantic cabin crew members have been fired for posting racist remarks and unfounded claims on Facebook -they were lucky that they were not slapped with libel. The Telegraph newspaper on the other hand was a victim to the lack of foresight in using tags without moderating the entries during April of last year.
For more details on the misuse of Twitter on the Vodafone account and other related news, head straight to the Guardian UK.
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