Random dude mistaken for the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Twitter during #CensusFail
It's pretty easy to be mistaken for someone else on Twitter, but we certainly don't envy those who bear the wrath of angry Australians, Jedi-identifying or otherwise.
Tuesday was census night, with millions of citizens meant to submit their personal details online (for the first time) as part of the country's largest statistical collection. Unfortunately the census website was unable to be accessed, with government officials blaming "hackers" for the outage on Wednesday morning.
While people complained on Twitter with the hashtag #CensusFail, an American named Andrei Soroker found himself on the receiving end of Australia's grievances.
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That's because Soroker's Twitter handle @abs, happens to be an acronym for the Australian Bureau of Statistics -- the government organisation responsible for the Census.
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Soroker even put changed his profile bio, to explain that he wasn't from the government organisation. Eventually, some clever folks figured out that @abs wasn't the Australian Bureau of Statistics, leading to apologies.
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Soroker, who is from Oakland, California and is the CEO of startup Sameroom.io, told Mashable Australia via email that he gets mistaken for other organisations often on Twitter. On average he receives 1 or 2 odd tweets per day.
"I find it absolutely hilarious. I get a lot of rogue tweets (usually aimed at ABS-CBN), but the ones meant for the Bureau of Statistics are some of the most thoughtful. I added 'Not Australian Bureau of Statistics' to my Twitter bio a couple of years ago, because I quite like the name," he said.
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"I find it interesting and kind of alarming that so many people don't understand how Twitter works -- the seemingly trivial concepts behind mentions and hashtags are daunting for so many. One of the faces of ever-growing digital divide, I suppose."
Oh and if you didn't know, the correct Twitter handle for the Australian Bureau of Statistics is @ABSCensus. We're sure it's got bigger fish to fry right now, however.
