Amazon’s bot on Twitter confused a sarcastic tweet meant to address the political crisis unfolding in Maharashtra for a customer complaint. Yes, that really happened.
Amazon’s bot on Twitter confused a sarcastic tweet meant to address the political crisis unfolding in Maharashtra for a customer complaint. Yes, that really happened.
Amazon’s bot on Twitter confused a sarcastic tweet meant to address the political crisis unfolding in Maharashtra for a customer complaint. Yes, that really happened.
On Saturday, things took a dramatic turn in Maharashtra when a faction of NCP leaders broke away under the leadership of Ajit Pawar and formed the government with Devendra Fadnavis as the Chief Minister and Pawar as Deputy CM. This resulted in widespread furore and outrage with disgruntled citizens claiming that rules had been broken or bent in order to allow the BJP to follow the government in the state.
Over the weekend, the Shiv Sena, the NCP under Sharad Pawar and the Congress filed a petition with the Supreme Court to call for a floor test. The top court, on Monday, reserved judgement for Tuesday. The case saw arguments from all sides; Mukul Rohatgi, representing Maharashtra BJP, told the court that the state Governor would call for a floor test within a few days and that an immediate floor test was not required. He also requested the court not to order a floor test immediately.
This raised a serious question about the claims made by the BJP in the Supreme Court because Rohatgi and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta stated that Fadnavis staked claim with the support of 170 MLAs.
That is exactly what columnist and author Samrat Choudhury pointed out on Twitter. He asked “What could possibly take 7 days” on Twitter, to which journalist Shruti Ganapatye replied saying “BJP should not need more time. Party has been claiming 170+ MLAs support.”
In a sarcastic response, Samrat compared the situation to when you order products on Amazon and it doesn’t get delivered.
Now this is what we’re guessing happened. Since Amazon’s name had been used in the tweet, it probably got picked up by their bot, which automatically responded to the tweet offering help.
“Apologies for any unpleasant experience you had with regard to the delivery of your orders. Could you please elaborate on your concern? We would be glad to assist you.” the tweet read.
However, Amazon later deleted the tweet. Nevertheless, Twitterati were quick to screenshot it.