When Tweeting with URL Shorteners Goes Wrong

Former eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman is of course running for Governor of California. A spokesperson working for her has provided us all with a lesson about being careful with our social media content, and to always check our links before we share them with the world. 

Gizmodo points to a tweet from Sarah Pompei (the spokesperson), which was supposed to be a link to an endorsement for Whitman from The San Diego County Deputy Sherriffs’ Association:

Instead, the link went to this YouTube video:

Buzzfeed shows the announcement from Whitman of the endorsement, which says:

"Meg Whiman today announced the endorsement of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of San Diego County. The association represents more than 3,000 member of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department."

"’Frontline law enforcement professionals agree that California needs strong laws and leaders who enforce them, and I am honored to have the support of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of San Diego County," Meg Whitman said…

And so on.

The story, as it’s being reported from several sources is that Pompei simply left a character off of the shortened bit.ly link that goes to the video. And herein lies the lesson. I wonder how many other shortened links out there are going to unintended destinations.

Now that could be an issue for your online reputation. 

Here are a few of the most visible reactions to the tweet as of the time of this writing:

Pompei has not removed the tweet with the faulty link thus far.