The pub chain JD Wetherspoon have clarified that it has not banned staff from wearing Remembrance Day poppies, after a spoof Twitter account claimed it had.
We do support the Poppy Appeal in all of our pubs. Please ignore spoof sites.
— J D Wetherspoon (@jdwtweet) October 26, 2017
- Wetherspoon Official pic.twitter.com/pvmApxvCIN
The fake account generated a lot of angry replies after claiming “ever expanding multiculturalism” was the reason staff would not be wearing poppies this year.
Due to the ever expanding multiculturalism of our clientele and employees this year our staff will not be wearing the poppy while working.
— WETHERSP00N_UK (@Wetherspoon_UK) October 23, 2017
wetherspoons are a disgrace and will not get another penny of me.banning staff from wearing poppies due to multiculturalism.
— gazolahammersfan (@Garythomaswick2) October 26, 2017
One user created a #BoycottWetherspoons hashtag to spread the news, but not everybody was impressed.
The sheer inability to check even the simplest, most obvious of facts is one of the greatest dangers in modern society #BoycottWetherspoons
— Tom Kilbey (@tom29whu) October 27, 2017
Some customers reacted with initial dismay, only to realise they had been fooled.
This is a sad day and last time I drink in one of your pubs.
— Rob Bain (@RobBain1) October 25, 2017
Must learn to read whole thread before getting hooked like that again..thank fuck it’s a wind up, would’ve missed a pint with a full English
— Rob Bain (@RobBain1) October 25, 2017
Other social media users posted about the impact the spoof was having on friends and family
God sake, come home for half an hour today to discover my mum is organising a Wetherspoons boycott because of a parody tweet about poppies 🙃
— Cameron Bibby (@cambibs) October 26, 2017
The rumour subsequently took off on Facebook, with one user posting: “Let’s get something cleared up here. I have just opened up my page and I find I am inundated by messages telling me to avoid Wetherspoons as they are not allowing staff to wear the poppy,” before going on to dismiss the story as a hoax and threaten to delete friends who continued to post it.
The Wetherspoons social media team stepped in to reply to lots of comments on Twitter, seemingly to the delight of the fake account, which posted a video of scrolling through all the replies.
Did you get upto anything exciting at work today? 😂🎣#PoppyGate pic.twitter.com/5UgnbOD7wG
— WETHERSP00N_UK (@Wetherspoon_UK) October 26, 2017
Twitter’s terms and conditions on parody accounts state that their biography “should indicate that the user is not affiliated with the account subject by stating a word such as ‘parody’, ‘fake’, ‘fan’ or ‘commentary’.”
Companies and brands can complain to Twitter about parodies, and Wetherspoons has previously had spoof accounts shut down, but Twitter warns that “an account that complies with our parody policy may not be found to be violating our trademark or impersonation policies”.
