From Zayn Malik to Taylor Swift: The tweets people wish they could take back in 2015

From ‘sadness in his eyes’ gaffes to cringe-worthy feuds

Smiles all round (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

While the headlines in 2015 have been dominated by Jeremy Corbyn’s rise from the backbench, the Piggate scandal that will forever be seared into our minds and Justin Bieber's renaissance, other headlines have been made on the basis of just a single tweet.

From ‘sadness in his eyes’ gaffes to cringe-worthy feuds, the following examples demonstrate how social media can become a PR’s worst nightmare.

Gerry Hamilton

The year got off to a bang when a US ESPN sports presenter unintentionally shared a link to a very, very different one to the one he had intended to share.

In an attempt to tweet a sporting update to his 15,000 followers, Hamilton tweeted a link to a porn video.

Twitter erupted and even Pornhub gave Hamilton a ribbing by asking if he wanted to switch jobs for a day.

Hamilton immediately took the tweet down and re-posted it - this time with the correct link.

Kanye West

A Twitter list of this variety would be incomplete without at least one offering from West, the rapper who has continued his quest for world domination one bizarre quote at a time.

West became the ultimate embarrassing Dad when he embarked on a Twitter rant about his daughter, North, buying ‘in app purchases’ while playing games on his iPad.

Echoing the calls of parents of toddlers in the digital age everywhere, West pleaded for tech companies "give us a break for Christ sake!".

Police forces

In an unsuccessful effort to be current and cool, the National Police Air Service shared a police helicopter image of comedian Michael McIntyre in July.

But after asking followers to guess which “energetic funny man” they had found with surveillance, they were faced a backlash amid concerns over McIntyre’s right to privacy.

BBC Journalist

A simple “error” on Twitter in June led to the entire BBC Language workforce embarking on a social media refresher course, a rare intervention from Buckingham Palace and international news sites reporting the death of the British monarch.

Why? Because BBC Urdu journalist Ahmen Khawaja told 8,000 followers the Queen had died. The tweet was accidentally sent during a regular rehearsal by the BBC for royal deaths and swiftly deleted. But it was too late, and a few news sites ran with headlines proclaiming the Queen's 'death'.

The embarrassing ordeal concluded with the journalist’s tweet and subsequent retraction being branded a “serious breach of editorial guidelines” by a BBC investigation.

Kim Kardashian-West

The reality TV star almost faced the wrath of an entire country after an Argentian entertainment site misinterpreted a tweet about the Pope.

During his highly successful trip to the US in September, the outlet speculated that Kardashian-West calling the pope ‘dope’ was a negative insult and warned she could be an “enemy” of the Catholic church leader.

Louise Mensch

The former Tory MP’s Twitter campaign to dissuade Labour voters from electing Corbyn as leader of the party came to a mortifying halt after a faux pas.

In an attempt to prove the anti-Semitism of Corbyn supporters, Mensch shared the apparent ‘automated search results’ next to Liz Kendall’s name.

Yet despite having posted 120,000 tweets in six years (that’s an average of 54 per day) it became clear Mensch still hadn’t quite grasped Twitter.

The ‘x’ next to the search term actually reveals the user’s past search history, not the general Twittersphere’s – meaning, yes, Mensch had searched those terms herself.

Luckily, John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, was on hand to highlight the Twitter fail.

Taylor Swift v. Nicki Minaj

The spat that reminded the world Taylor Swift isn’t always right arrived in 2015, when Swift was forced to apologise to Nicki Minaj for firing back at a tweet she believed was aimed at her.

Minaj was upset that her videos for Anaconda and Feelin' Myself weren’t nominated for VMA Video of the Year and said if she were a “different kind of artist” it would have been nominated.

Swift, who’s video for Bad Blood went on to win the gong, read this as a reference to her and hit back:

A mere two days later, in a rare public apology, Swift said sorry. The two resolved their issues and the important discussion about race in the music industry that Minaj had tried to highlight was opened up.

Zayn Malik

After quitting One Direction, which resulted in a large number of the British workforce taking sick days, Malik began the quest to find his own identity – which apparently involves online arguments with DJs.

Following a re-tweet by Malik, which Harris believed to be a dig at his girlfriend Taylor Swift, Harris told him to “stay out of things you don’t understand”.

This didn't go down well with Malik who used the most natural put-down anyone would give to a 31-year-old man: “Calm your knickers before them dentures fall out”.

This particular incident followed after another spat with bandmate Louis Tomlinson, breaking the hearts of Directioners everywhere.

Never fear, Louis has since told the Late Late Show with James Corden the squabble had been "resolved".

Kay Burley

Sky News journalist Kay Burley headed to Paris following the terror attacks on in November.

While reporting on the sombre mood in the French capital, Burley believed a Golden Retriever summed up the situation perfectly and captioned “the sadness in his eyes”.

Unfortunately, the internet had other ideas, resulting in numerous memes and photos from followers sharing the sadness in their dog’s, cat’s and potato’s eyes.

Brilliantly, Burley managed to laugh at the incident and used it to aptly sum up Peter Andre’s departure from Strictly.

Sol Campbell

Recently, the Arsenal player turned Tory activist received online backlash after publicly criticising a waiter for his “terrible service”.

All credit to poor Liam, who found his identity broadcast to Campbell’s 71,000 followers, he replied apologising for “getting off on the wrong foot”.

However, Twitter was not as forgiving as Liam and branded Campbell a “grass” and criticised him for “trying to lose someone a job a month before Christmas”.

Ed Balls

Ok, so, the infamous post which resulted in an annual day in the tweet’s honour didn’t happen in 2015…. but we will take any opportunity to remind people of the time Ed Balls tweeted: “Ed Balls”.

You're welcome.