Topic: Pentagon Twitter account pulled for joking about Davao blasts

[pspyrock]

Mga kano din yung nagcomment/nagreply sa Twitter na mali at insensitive yung tweet ng JIEDDO.





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MANILA, Philippines -- A Twitter account maintained by the US Department of Defense has been suspended for an "inappropriate" post about the explosions that hit cinemas in SM City and Gaisano Mall in Davao City Monday.

The account and the offending tweets have been taken down, but Business Insider grabbed screen captures of a social media exchange that got more bizarre as it went along before reaching its abrupt end.

After reports of the attack began to come in, this appeared on the JIEDDO Twitter feed: “Were they re-showing Gigli? Bomb explosions occur at 2 movie theaters in the Philippines ... the IED is a global threat.”

Criticism arose, with some regarding it as strange that a Defense Department agency would make light of an attack.

Someone at JIEDDO didn’t take the hint, and this popped up on the agency’s Twitter feed a short time later: “Bad ppl doing bad thing didn’t warrant bad movie reference. Will punish #socialmedia rep by forcing 2 watch Gigli.”

After taking more heat for pushing it even further, someone at JIEDDO finally apologized and closed with: “IED will never go away, but we’ve saved lives.”

Shortly after that, the account went dark. An hour later, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little went to his Twitter account to verify that he had directed the suspension of JIEDDO’s Twitter account “following inappropriate and offensive tweets. Plainly unacceptable.”

Gigli is a 2003 romantic comedy starring Ben Affleck and then girlfriend Jennifer Lopez that bombed and is often cited as among the worst films of all time.

The JIEDDO tweet linked to the Philippine Information Agency article, "IED materials found in twin cinema blasts."

Though not many were able to reply to the tweet, those who did expressed disgust at the "bad taste" with which the "joke" was made.

JIEDDO was established to respond to "escalating" use of IEDs in Iraq, according to its website.

Authorities say the Davao blasts were caused by explosives packed in beverage cans and were not intended to harm since they did not contain shrapnel.

Five moviegoers at the Gaisano theater, which also suffered some damage, complained their hearing had been affected by the blast.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/71127/pentagon-twitter-account-pulled-for-joking-about-davao-blasts
http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20130919/NEWS05/309190012/JIEDDO-Twitter-account-goes-dark-after-jokes-about-Philippines-bombing