Presidential: On Twitter this election hashtag with the US flag arouses misunderstanding

Twitter screenshot

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PRESIDENTIAL 2022 – While the French are called to the polls this Sunday, April 10 to vote in the first round of the 2022 presidential election, a hashtag that appeared on Twitter and particularly shared – more than 30,000 tweets at 2 p.m. – aroused misunderstanding and confusion on social network.

And for good reason, next to the hashtag “#Election2020″, French Twitter users were surprised to discover an emoji of a blue, white and red tricolor flag not corresponding to that of France, but indeed to that of the States United with his stars and stripes.

>>> Follow the first round of the presidential election live on HuffPost

This flag emoji, illustrated in a chat bubble, caused a wave of protest messages on Twitter, between those surprised by this choice of the social network and those hurt to see the wrong flag for a French election.

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Why the hashtag #Election2022 does it have the american flag in emoji and not the french flag? Are we so insignificant?

—Benjamin Briand (@BrndBenjamin) April 10, 2022

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Twitter responds

Contacted by The HuffPostthe social network with the blue bird advances an element allowing to better understand the curious presence of this American emoji in the middle of a French ballot.

“Anyone can use hashtags around the world. For the presidential election in France, five are planned: ‘presidential’, ‘presidential’ (without accent, editor’s note)‘presidentielles2022’, ‘presidentielles2022’ and ‘JeVote’”, initially explains Twitter France.

The hashtag “Election2022″ accompanied by the American flag was planned for the American midterms of November, the midterm elections which will take place on November 8. “But these are hashtags that all Internet users can enter and there are dozens of elections each year in the world”, adds Twitter. Between the lines, the social network therefore suggests that it was indeed the Internet users who brought up this hashtag on this election day, and not the other way around.

Another detail that questions, the plural mark at the end of the hashtags with the word “presidential”. On this specific point, Twitter did not, however, give any explanation.

See also on The HuffPost: Not sure who to vote for? Here are three keys to help you

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