The Greater Chennai Police (GCP) sparked some outrage on Twitter by rebuking a user for sharing a picture of beef curry, and replying to his picture that “such unwarranted posts should be avoided.”
The comment was deleted and an apology was issued after the initial response drew widespread flak.
At 9 pm on Wednesday, 6 July, a Twitter user shared a picture of a plate of a beef food item, with just the caption ‘Beef’ in Tamil. The official handle of the Greater Chennai Police replied to the tweet, saying, “Such posts are unwarranted here,” and that “unwarranted posts should be avoided.”
After Police's Response, More Users Post Images of Beef, Pork Dishes as a Mark of Protest
The Chennai Police’s tweet received backlash from several Twitter users asking why the police had randomly responded to a user's food pictures. Many tweeted images and videos of several beef and pork dishes as a mark of protest against the GCP's tweet. Many questioned the police for policing people's food habits.
Later, however, the Chennai Police said that the rebuke to the Twitter user was an inadvertent mistake, and deleted the tweets. In a clarification tweet, the police's Twitter handle said that the Chennai police's handle had retweeted the picture of the beef dish, and said that reply to the original post was intended for the retweet by the GCP handle.
“@AbubackerOfficl Since the Tweet you posted was retweeted on the Chennai Police Department's @chennaipolice_ page, this entry was made on the grounds that private posts should be avoided on Twitter pages for public use. But we apologize for posting this on your page itself by mistake. This is not about your personal preferences,” the tweets said.
(Published in arrangement with The News Minute.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)