A man briefly deleted his Twitter account after his thread about a school trip attracted a lot of attention.
Simon Smith had volunteered to take his daughter and her classmates on a school trip to the Science Museum in London.
The tweets - describing children farting, crying and vomiting at various points on the trip - quickly went viral and were covered by various news publications, including HuffPost UK. But while some found the tweets “hilarious”, others reportedly found them offensive.
The BBC quoted a tweet from Smith that said the attention “got out of hand” and the report was “largely fictional” so he removed himself from Twitter entirely for a few hours.
“Something that started out as a light-hearted Twitter thread has spiralled out of control and I’ve deleted it to avoid causing people any further upset,” he wrote on Twitter. “If Monday’s thread caused you any offence at all, I’m very sorry... At no point during the day were any real children put in any danger or threat.
“It was honestly just a joke that got a little out of hand... If it made you laugh, then that was the point and if it didn’t? Well I’m sorry.”
Smith later clarified on Twitter which elements of his original thread had been fictional: “Quotes from the kids were all real. I obviously never lost one, called anyone a twat and was looking after them properly, so drafted and scheduled most of it the night before as a piece of comedy and then punctuated it with gold when it occurred.”
Smith had more than 11,000 Twitter followers, many of whom were dismayed to learn he had suspended his account. One user wrote: “Please know that most of us found it comedy gold with a hint of truth. I say this as a parent who went on a school trip yesterday!”
Update: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that the BBC quoted Smith’s tweets, rather than interviewed him.