Amnesty International, a left-leaning group that says it stands for human rights, went into Ferguson, Missouri where they were tweeting updates from the ground.
At one point, Amnesty International tweeted out this:
US can’t tell other countries to improve their records on policing and peaceful assembly if it won’t clean up its own human rights record
— AmnestyInternational (@amnesty) August 19, 2014
This did not sit well with the Twitter feed at think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which describes itself as a “bipartisan” institution that deals with international issues. CSIS tweeted out this in response:
This is the tweet to @amnesty – since deleted by @CSIS pic.twitter.com/O29lPAUwsu
— mia farrow (@MiaFarrow) August 19, 2014
It appears that CSIS deleted that tweet, as it’s nowhere to be found on their Twitter page. But many Twitter users took screenshots of it.
CSIS tweeted out an apology:
Our sincerest apologies to @Amnesty & our followers. Our last tweet was sent in error. We’re reviewing internal policies for social media.
— CSIS (@CSIS) August 19, 2014
The prominent think tank later told Buzzfeed in an e-mail that the tweet was sent out by an intern.
“Early this morning, an unconscionable tweet was directed to Amnesty from CSIS’s Twitter account (@CSIS),” CSIS Senior Vice President For External Relations Andrew Schwartz told Buzzfeed. “The tweet in no way reflects CSIS’s views. It was sent by a CSIS intern who had access to our account for monitoring purposes.
“Apparently he meant to send something reflecting his personal views from his personal Twitter account. I find his views and the way he expressed them to be abhorrent and will take appropriate action at CSIS to address the matter internally.”
When Buzzfeed asked if they would fire the intern, Schwartz told Buzzfeed they are “handling the matter internally.”
(h/t: Mediaite)