Twitter have apologised after Manchester United complained about a tweet which appeared to poke fun at Phil Jones.
The social media’s UK account tweeted on Tuesday: ‘Name a footballer better than Phil Jones’.
Their post was widely interpreted as a distasteful attempt at humour given that Jones has been subject to some unsavoury remarks over his appearance during matches.
A number of users complained about the tweet, with Twitter criticised in the past for failing to tackling bullying and abusive messaging on their platform.
And it is also understood that unimpressed officials at Old Trafford were moved to get in touch.
Twitter has introduced a new feature, aimed at tackling bullying, which allows users to select who can reply to a tweet. And, ironically, it claimed it was ‘showcasing’ the new service with the Jones tweet when contacted by Sportsmail.
A Twitter spokesperson said: ‘Our aim was to showcase our new product feature, conversation controls, which allows you to select who can reply to a Tweet.
'It was not our intention to cause upset and once we realised our mistake, we immediately deleted the Tweet.'