Donald Tapia’s messages sparked a backlash from other users who insulted him.
Washington:
The US ambassador to Jamaica has traded insults with people on Twitter who accused him of interfering in the country’s internal affairs, telling one he was using too much marijuana and another that “you drink that cheap stuff ”.
Tuesday’s exchanges came after Ambassador Donald Tapia posted links to interviews he gave to local media, in which he warned the Jamaican government against installing mobile technology to fifth generation manufactured by Chinese companies Huawei.
Washington says Huawei technology could be used to spy on China and has dissuaded other countries from installing it. Huawei has denied the claim.
The U.S. Embassy in Kingston did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The State Department and Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s office declined to comment.
The ambassador appears to have deleted his tweets on Wednesday after Reuters examined them.
Tapia, a wealthy Arizona businessman, philanthropist, Republican donor and supporter of President Donald Trump, has been in office for more than a year. His Twitter account is verified by the social media company.
Tapia’s messages sparked a backlash from other users who insulted him, claiming the comments in his interview interfered with Jamaica’s internal affairs.
When a user reminded him of a recent New York Times report that Trump has an account in a Chinese bank, Tapia replied with “Too much Ganga,” a misspelling of the word “ganja,” a synonym for marijuana.
Another user accused Tapia of “drinking rum or Red Bull or trying to play a joke on me”, and Tapia replied, “I don’t drink and you are a joke”.
When another Twitter user wrote: “I don’t drink American vodka”. Tapia replied, “You can’t afford it, you drink this cheap stuff.”
State Department regulations prohibit posting “offensive or harassing language” and “abusive or objectionable language” on social media.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
