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Twitter users unleash furor over Delta's World Cup tweet

Congratulating the US team on its winning goal over Ghana, the airline company mistakenly posts a giraffe gaffe.

Dara Kerr Former senior reporter
Dara Kerr was a senior reporter for CNET covering the on-demand economy and tech culture. She grew up in Colorado, went to school in New York City and can never remember how to pronounce gif.
Dara Kerr
2 min read

The US soccer team was on a warpath on Monday. After two depressing defeats against Ghana the last two World Cups, it was finally time for a US win. And win it did -- scoring its victory goal in the 2-1 match in the last few minutes of the game.

US soccer fans rejoiced, twitter users rejoiced, and US companies also got in on the social media action -- congratulating the US team. One such company, Delta Airlines, tweeted "Congrats team #USA! Nice goal" and attached an image.

And, that is when the trouble began.

The attached image showed a photo of the statue of liberty with a "2" overlay and an image of a giraffe with a "1" overlay. It's unclear when an image of a giraffe started to represent the country of Ghana, oh wait, giraffes have never represented Ghana -- they don't even exist there.

Delta's tweet caused a Twitter frenzy with some people poking fun at the company's ignorance and others downright angered at what they deemed as racist. "And it's @Delta's social media team with today's awful brand World Cup tweet," wrote Alex Horton, who also got a screenshot of Delta's tweet (pictured above).

"I remember when I was in Ghana riding my giraffe on the beach," wrote Twitter user Hambone.

"The Delta tweet is totally embarrassing and racist, but it's funny that my entire twitter stream is suddenly experts in giraffe habitats," tweeted Lincoln Michel.

Delta has since deleted its tweet with the giraffe image and sent out an apology.

"We're sorry for our choice of photo in our previous tweet," the company wrote. "Best of luck to all teams."