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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Elena Cresci

#GE0215: it's Titus Flavius v Caracalla as people tweet wrong hashtag

This is a picture from a polling station in 2015, not 215.
This is a picture from a polling station in 2015, not 215. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

It’s polling day and, inevitably, there has already been at least one hashtag fail.

This morning, instead of tweeting about #GE2015, the hashtag people on Twitter have been using to discuss the general election, tired early birds instead managed to get #GE0215 trending. Because this is Britain and we love mistakes.

We’re not sure how it started as the typo has been around since at least November.

But, buoyed by people making fun of it, Twitter’s suggested hashtag function and people telling each other they’re using the wrong hashtag, #GE0215 soon began trending in the UK. According to Topsy, a Twitter analysis tool, more than 1,700 tweets using #GE0215 have been sent in the last day. Score one for fat fingers.

News outlets used it:

Armando Iannucci used it:

Meanwhile, people expressed their concerns:

Sharp-eyed Twitter users started tweeting as though they actually were taking part in an election in the year 215, with some succumbing to historical inaccuracies:

But not others:

And now it’s come full circle as news organisations begin writing about why everyone is tweeting about an election taking place 1,800 years ago.

Well done, everyone, that’s our election day Twitter fun sorted. Though it’s not trending any more so we may have to stop with the time-travelling jokes now.

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