Banking giant JPMorgan Chase was forced into a humiliating climbdown over its plans to hold a question-and-answer session on Twitter yesterday after receiving a barrage of abusive tweets.
The bank had arranged an event where top executive Jimmy Lee would field questions from users in what it hoped would be a positive public relations stunt.
But the company said yesterday that it had scrapped the session after being flooded with insults, confirming the decision with the matter-of-fact tweet: “Tomorrow’s Q&A is cancelled. Bad idea. Back to the drawing board.”
Last week JPMorgan asked users of the popular microblogging site to send questions marked with the hashtag #AskJPM in advance of the session set for yesterday at 1pm in New York.
Few questions appeared until Wednesday afternoon when responses started piling in.
Some users simply made fun of the bank’s attempt to use social media, but many others chose to insult executives or ask barbed questions about the bank’s recent legal problems and corporate responsibility.
“Reading the #AskJPM Twitter feed makes it seem JPM put a ‘kick me’ sticker on its back when it rolled out that hashtag,” wrote a user who identified himself as an editor and columnist.
Meanwhile, one user asked: “What’s it like working for Mexican drug cartels? Do they tip?” – Daily Mail