The unofficial mascot for the Japanese city Susaki “Chiitan” has been banned from Twitter and lost its title as “unofficial” tourist ambassador for the region.
The official English Chiitan Twitter account acted as though Chiitan mistook Oliver’s attempts to console Shinjo-kun for losing his friend as though Chiijohn was trying to steal Shinjo-kun for himself. In typical hot-headed fashion, Chiitan
challenged John Oliver to a fight on April 22nd.
On May 14th, nearly all of Chiitan’s official Twitter accounts were banned- including those in Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Arabic and Turkish.
Sora News 24 reports that the remaining English Twitter account made numerous posts begging for the other accounts to be reinstated.
While some outlets and individuals have theorized this may have to do with the tweet sent to John Oliver being mis-interpreted as a genuine threat, Sora News 24 also report that
“Twitter suspensions have been affecting a number of entertainment-related accounts in Japan recently”. These even include the real Chiitan’s Twitter account- the otter that inspired both the creation of Shinjo-Kun and the unofficial Chiitan.
Chiitan’s staff “Team Chiitan” have even created
Change.Org petition to reinstate the other accounts. After explaining the situation, they also revealed in a statement they had no prior warning or explanation since about the suspension:
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