Social media have opened a window to the United Nations mindset, much to its own embarrassment.
The latest tweet gone wrong — or so we are to presume — concerns the U.S. presidential race and the candidate generally frowned upon by most folks at One World United, namely Donald Trump.
A tweet from a verified Twitter account, supposedly from the U.N. News Center, urged “8 million Americans abroad” to “stop” Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee. Within about 20 minutes the tweet was killed.
“I wanted to let you know that the tweet did not originate from the U.N. News Centre (sic) and that this was the reason for it being taken down,” the chief of news services told the Washington Examiner. Reportedly the tweet was linked to a website managed by a progressive group called Avaaz.
While about 8 million Americans do live abroad, only about 12 percent voted in the last presidential election, based on an Oxford University study.
Just a few weeks ago, a tweet from the U.N. human rights office, also deleted, slammed free-market “fundamentalism” and questioned whether it’s an “urgent threat.” That missive went out to about 1.5 million followers.
Transparency has never been the U.N.’s strong suit. That’s especially egregious when U.S. taxpayers pony up about a quarter of its operating budget and 28 percent of its peacekeeping budget. But maybe in this era of social media and instant communications, a little light may shine in the dark recesses of Turtle Bay.
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