The Montreal Canadiens issued an apology late Tuesday night after a social media promotion to celebrate the team's one millionth Twitter follower went horribly awry.
The team used an automated script to deliver video messages from players as well as customized images and personalized jersey avatars to anybody who tweeted at the team with a customized hashtag. However, the team's official account -- through automation -- delivered messages and images displaying highly offensive personalized Twitter handles containing inappropriate language and racial slurs, including some directed at defenseman P.K. Subban, who is black.
The player videos, including one of Subban, thanked fans for their support.
The Canadiens became aware of the issue and issued an apology, saying they had "fixed the issue."
Automated messages were sent from our account tonight resulting from a filtering issue in our campaign to thank our 1M Twitter followers.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) February 24, 2016
We apologize for the offensive messages and have fixed the issue so it won't happen in the future.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) February 24, 2016