Israeli embassy withdraws threat over fake tweets

Fake tweets insulting Ireland that appeared to be from the Israeli embassy went viral yesterday, resulting in the embassy threatening legal action against a student website.

The satirical tweets originated in the satire section of oxygen.ie. They were then shared on social media, with many users believing they were real.

Some of the tweets read “Ireland, your foreign policies are almost as ugly as your mother”, and “Ireland your Tánaiste has a head like a bag of spanners #sorrynotsorry”.

An oxygen.ie spokesman said: “The idea behind the satirical piece was to highlight how easy it is to fake a Twitter account using Photoshop. Ours was deliberately done badly. We didn’t expect anyone to take it seriously.”

However, the embassy was not aware that the tweets had been originally published as satire and threatened legal action against the publishers.

Oxygen.ie removed the tweets and published a statement on its website clarifying the issue.

Yesterday, the embassy confirmed it will not be taking action. A spokes- man said: “The problem is that people thought it was real, the issue has now been clarified and the tweets… removed.”