confusion on the web
They weren’t hacked: Why Olaf Scholz and Christian Lindner just tweet a word
Olaf Scholz (r) and Christian Lindner
© political moments / Imago Images
Olaf Scholz wrote “respect”, Christian Lindner just tweeted “freedom” – and even Joe Biden just published a word on Twitter. What was behind it?
Some users were already wondering whether the Twitter accounts of Olaf Scholz, Christian Lindner or Joe Biden were hacked. The Chancellor, the Federal Minister of Finance and the US President all tweeted one word each, without explaining it in any way or putting it in any context.
Scholz wrote “respect”, Lindner “freedom” and Biden tweeted the word “democracy”. It has already been joked that the politicians had probably confused the Twitter input field with the Google input mask. But the error was neither technical nor human in nature, rather the unusual tweets were fully intentional. Like many other users on the platform, Scholz, Lindner and Biden also took part in “One Word Day”.
Olaf Scholz and other politicians take part in “One Word Day”.
As the name suggests, it’s all about tweeting just one word. This year, companies from the USA started the trend first. They sent words that were supposed to show their unique selling proposition and also showed self-irony: At the pizza delivery service Domino’s it was “pineapple”, at Nasa “universe” and McDonald’s just tweeted “clown” – based on the advertising character Ronald McDonald.
Many other users tweeted words that describe them particularly well or that are particularly important to them. With US President Biden, it was “democracy” – apparently no longer a matter of course in the United States. The term was also well chosen for Chancellor Olaf Scholz: he had put his election campaign last year under the word “respect”. And with Christian Lindner as chairman of the Liberals, “freedom” is of course also obvious. The Federal Ministry of Justice also took part in “One Word Day”. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann’s house tweeted the word “rule of law”.
Sources: Olaf Scholz on Twitter / Christian Lindner on Twitter / Joe Biden on Twitter / Federal Ministry of Justice on Twitter