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Twitter gaffes, however, are not always avoidable

Rape avoidable?

Somebody who handles social media for the state is probably going to get called into a meeting this morning over this tweet.

UPDATE: The state's taken down the tweet and posted several new ones this morning, starting at 9:57 a.m.:

An apology from Geoff Kula, Director of http://Mass.gov :

I deeply regret the message sent last night regarding sexual assault and apologize to all sexual assault victims.

We in no way meant to suggest that victims of sexual assault are to blame for the crimes committed against them.

To learn more about what you can do to combat violence or if you need assistance, please see this blog: http://ow.ly/wn0oy


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Comments

I'm not worried about the double rape suspect being freed...

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I can't correct it in my mind to anything sensible.

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ow.ly/vHl2s appears to go to the URL "http://kit/"

Weird.

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i got

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http://blog.mass.gov/hhs/children-youth-and-families/sexual-assault-awar...

I think that ow.ly link has a capital I not a lowercase L. Seems to be saying that sexual abuse against children can always be prevented, not that sexual assault prevention is always the domain of the victim. Of course wording matters. They weren't even that close to the Twitter limit so....

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Wanted to make sure to preserve it, because I'm paranoid that way.

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I had no luck reaching anyone in a state office who seemed to even know what Twitter was, but the tweet disappeared about 9:20 am.

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In addition to deleting the tweet, they've posted an apology.

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How about "always be vigilant about avoiding sexual assault"?

Given the context (tweet from MA government promoting SAAM, as opposed to tweet of right-wing talk show host commenting about, say, some people who had sex but were too intoxicated to establish consent), it's more likely a poor choice of words than anything.

That said, I hate that my taxes pay for these social media campaigns. If they hire people to use twitter to warn about highway closures or tax deadlines, fine. If they're hiring people to promote causes, then that's not fine.

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I understand how difficult fitting an important message in fewer than 140 characters can be. However, that this was actually tweeted from an account charged w/ being sensitive to abuse victims is beyond me.

How about

"Join in and act to stop sexual assault. Learn more from @Mass_HHS ow.ly/xxxxx #SAAM"

or

"A growing force of young people in MA step up to promote healthy relationships & end sexual violence. See ow,ly/xxxxx #SAAM @Mass_HHS"

Both fit a tweet, and are culled from language in the linked blog. Not brain surgery. But I'm guessing the person who sent the original tweet is not a regular twitter user, from the brackets around the link.

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Are you guys just trying too hard to find something in anything to object to?

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The gaffe is saying that sexual attacks are always avoidable, with the implication that a person who is sexually attacked could be to blame.

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