Mea Culpa! Best Twitter Apologies

To err is human. Apologizing on Twitter lets you make amends, once and forever.

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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer ruffled feathers in the photography world earlier this week when she said “there’s no such thing, really, as professional photographers.” Photographers thought Mayer was dissing their jobs, while the tech executive said all she meant was that updates to the basic Flickr service will give users the same kind of space and resources that professionals expect. Yet she apologized profusely – and individually – to the offended photographers via Twitter:

[tweet https://twitter.com/marissamayer/status/337233311153938432]

The furor seemed to die down, and her savvy response got Newsfeed thinking about other big names who have issued apologies in the Twittersphere. Here are 8 notable examples from the past year:

1. Katy Perry to Chief Keef for Bashing His Lyrics

[tweet https://twitter.com/katyperry/status/337751161375436800]

Katy Perry sparked fireworks on May 21 when she tweeted about Chicago rapper Chief Keef’s song “I Hate Being Sober,” writing that she had “serious doubt for the world.” Keef threatened to beat her up, tweeting, “Ill Smack The S*** out her.” Perry clarified that she was making a point about binge-drinking culture, but some say Keef should have said he was sorry instead.

2. Los Angeles Kings to Women for Sexual Assault Joke

[tweet https://twitter.com/LAKings/status/337057581489082368]

Radio show host Kevin Ryder was walking on thin ice Tuesday night when he tweeted from the Los Angeles Kings twitter account that the team’s center Anze Kopitar “just got sexually assaulted” by San Jose Sharks goalie Antti Niemi in Game 4 of the NHL Western Conference. But sexual assault jokes backfire really easily, and Ryder quickly made amends.

3. Justin Bieber to London Fans for Showing Up Late

[tweet https://twitter.com/justinbieber/status/308920300484059137]

When Justin Bieber showed up two hours late to a Mar. 4 concert in London, some fans were in “tears” because they had to leave early so they wouldn’t miss their trains. The next day, Bieber claimed he was only 40 minutes late and would try to be more considerate. That wasn’t enough for Jon Bon Jovi, who called the Canadian pop star an “a**hole” for disrespecting his fans.

4. Rupert Murdoch to Jewish People for Anti-Semitic Cartoon

[tweet https://twitter.com/rupertmurdoch/status/295964833394851840]

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch was forced to apologize on Twitter for a couple of actions that were perceived as anti-semitic. One, posted Jan. 28, was about a Sunday Times cartoon published on Holocaust Memorial Day that depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall out of Palestinians’ blood and limbs. He also (kind of) apologized on Nov. 18, 2012, for tweeting, “Why Is Jewish owned press so consistently anti-Israel in every crisis?”

5. KitchenAid to Obama for Insulting His Grandma’s Memory

[tweet https://twitter.com/KitchenAidUSA/status/253673520700198914]

KitchenAid got into hot water last October when it tweeted, “Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! ‘She died 3 days b4 he became president’” after President Barack Obama cited his grandmother – who died just before he was elected in 2008 – in a presidential debate. An employee accidentally posted the tweet on KitchenAid’s Twitter instead of a personal account, according to a spokesperson.

6. Rashida Jones to John Travolta for Calling Him Gay

[tweet https://twitter.com/iamrashidajones/statuses/235399890165964800]

In an Aug. 10, 2012 interview with the entertainment website Spinning Platters, the Parks and Recreation star had urged actor John Travolta to put an end to rumors about his sexuality and “come out! Come on. How many masseurs have to come forward? Let’s do this.”

7. Jason Kidd to Hamptons Police for Drunk-Driving Incident

[tweet https://twitter.com/RealJasonKidd/status/226375939364384768]

Shortly after signing with the Knicks in July, the basketball player was charged with drunk driving after crashing his Escalade into a telephone pole in the Hamptons. He said he was sorry for the foul play on July 20, 2012.

8. Daniel Tosh to Women for Rape Joke

[tweet https://twitter.com/danieltosh/status/222796532653629441]
During a stand-up show in L.A. last July, the host of Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 made a woman in the audience the butt of a rape joke. She was so taken aback that she blogged about it on Tumblr, and the post went viral. Tosh apologized six days later, but argued in a follow-up tweet that people make jokes about sad things all the time, adding “#deadbabies.”