It was a bad week for Twitter typos as seemingly simple slips of the hand caused wide-spread confusion.
Following a historic vote at the United Nations General Assembly that saw Palestine recognized by the world body as a state, UN information officer Nancy Groves tweeted to 1.13 million followers: “On Day of Solidarity with Palestinians, Ban Ki-moon stressed urgency of reaching 1-state solution.”
The "1-state solution" comment -- which confused and concerned readers -- quickly spread with more than 100 retweets.
Following 30 minutes of silence, Groves set the record straight with a corrected "2-state solution" tweet.
But the damage was already done.
"1-state, 2-state, who’s counting right?" wrote one Twitter user.
"That '1 state' tweet was possibly the biggest typo ever in Twitter history," wrote another user.
Groves apologized for the tweet and described it as a "terrible typo."
Earlier in the week, as reporters anxiously awaited a judge’s verdict on Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s conflict-of-interest case, Toronto Star’s David Rider was the first to break the news via Twitter.
Unfortunately the tweet included a perplexing typo.
“@TOMayorFord guilty of breaching conflict of interest law, canx remain mayor of Toronto, judge rules,” tweeted Rider.
It didn’t take long for the 'canx' to catch on.
"Is this right? The Ford mayoralty is all hanging on spelling mistake? The suspense... Canx take it anymore! #topoli," tweeted one user.
"I canx quite understand what's happening with Rob Ford right now. Is he in or out? #TOpoli," tweeted another.
As Twitter increasingly becomes the medium of choice to break news, typos have the power to confuse and embarrass.
The media-advocacy group Poynter reports that certain news outlets now edit social media posts before they’re unleashed on the web.
"But you know what else inhibits social media usage? Fear of losing your job for saying the wrong thing," reads a recent Poynter article. "Reporters whose beats are minefields of controversy should probably welcome editorial oversight of social media."
