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Oops! French gov’t office links to sexy lingerie site in terrorism tweet

The Legal and Administrative Information Directorate tried to link to a terror financing policy.

 

Kris Holt

Internet Culture

Posted on Aug 13, 2013   Updated on Jun 1, 2021, 9:14 am CDT

Call it a Freudian tweet.

An official from France’s Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s office directed more than 5,000 Twitter followers to a lingerie and costume catalog of “sexy party dresses” when tweeting about a new the country’s policy on terrorist financing. The tweet was tagged with the hashtags #AlQaeda and #Terrorism.

Equally troubling: It took officials took more than a day to apologize, scrub the DILA (Legal and Administrative Information Directorate) tweet, and post the correct link, despite followers noting the flub.

#Fail RT @dila_tweet: Arrêté […] portant application des art du code monétaire […] #AlQaida #terrorisme #JORF https://t.co/TcTrAPeInz

— Pierrick Filippi (@PierrickFil) August 12, 2013

Officials blamed a “URL bug” for the error. That might be true: The DILA used a URL shortener, which doesn’t always work.

That, or Ayrault just found out what his staff really browses at work.

H/T The Local | Photo via natvella74/Flickr

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*First Published: Aug 13, 2013, 5:21 pm CDT