The official Harvey Norman Twitter account has well and truly gone off the rails, not only blocking people en masse but also posting some pretty fucked up replies to people making some very, very serious allegations.
The account’s official description literally says that it’s “unmanned” and yet someone has been using it to post revolting replies to people claiming to be former staff and customers.
Things kicked off when the account started blocking people who were talking about the wage strikes which took place outside Harvey Norman stores all over Australia last week.
“Working for your godforsaken company drove me to suicide in six months,” one person alleged in a tweet last Friday.
To this, the Harvey Norman Twitter account replied with a fucking facepalm emoji.
https://twitter.com/HarveyNormanAU/status/1398247082423558144
The account posted a similarly shit reply to another tweet not long after.
Whoever is in charge clearly thinks posting 2015-style emojis will block out the haters.
https://twitter.com/HarveyNormanAU/status/1398649305779499010
Here’s why everyone’s been tweeting about the company in the first place.
Last year, Harvey Norman received $6 million from JobKeeper, while its franchisees received a further $14.5 million under the scheme, which was designed to help struggling businesses during the pandemic.
But with the company posting record huge profits of $462 million for the second half of 2020, it’s understandable that workers would like to see some of that money.
“Harvey Norman saw the global pandemic as an ‘opportunity’, doubled its profits, benefited from a delay in the last increase in wages and then refused to pay back JobKeeper,” ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said on Friday as workers protested outside Harvey Norman stores.
“It’s now time for Harvey Norman to step up and support a 69 cent an hour pay rise. Prime Minister Morrison must also stop supporting big business’ calls for real wage cuts – what the economy needs now is people with money to spend.”
On top of these shitty replies to tweets about the workers’ protest, the Harvey Norman account has also retweeted a bunch of random sports posts, for some reason.
Some people have accused it of trying to blank its profile, so that when you click on it, all you see is a mountain of posts about things like surfing and AFL.
We’ve reached out to Harvey Norman to find out just what’s going on here, but they haven’t replied in time for publication.
So right now, it’s not exactly clear who’s manning this “unmanned” account.
Regardless of who’s posted this stuff, this is a really shitty way to deflect from workers who are making quite reasonable demands.
If you need mental health support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or chat online.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
You can also reach the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 or chat online.
If you require immediate assistance, please call 000.
