Since 2011, Star Wars fans have been celebrating the international Star Wars Day with the word game # MayThe4th (like the quote "May the force be with you"). But a confusing tweet from Disney + suddenly starts a shit storm about the associated hashtag.
Apparently Disney took the right Use all tweets with the hashtag # MayThe4th for advertising purposes – including the respective account name. Twitter was listening – but it's not that easy.
The power is with Disney
To celebrate the upcoming Star Wars Day on May 4th, Disney + tweeted the call to fans to share their best Star Wars moments with them and use the hashtag # MayThe4th.
Celebrate the Saga! Reply with your favorite #Starwars memory and you may see it somewhere special on # MayThe4th.
– Disney + (@disneyplus) April 27, 2020
A short time later, the tweet was supplemented: by sharing a tweet with the hashtag # MayThe4th you would cede the rights to Disneyto use the text and the respective account name in all media. To do this, they linked detailed terms of use.
By sharing your message with us using # MayThe4th, you agree to our use of the message and your account name in all media and our terms of use here: https://t.co/G0AyToufQ5
– Disney + (@disneyplus) April 27, 2020
Twitter makes fun of it
Twitter didn't want to put up with that and shot with a series of sarcastic answers back. For example, reading this tweet would commit Disney to transfer the author $ 1 million.
By reading my tweet, Disney agrees to pay me $ 1 million US, by no later than May 4th, 2020.#TwoCanPlayThatGame
– Mark Sweeney (@MarkSweeney) April 27, 2020
Others take the opportunity to express general frustration with the Disney company. User genevieve calls her favorite #MayThe4th reminder that the New York Times blacklisted film reviews because they wrote about Disney's "dodgy amusement park activities."
Sure! ? My favorite part of # MayThe4th is when Disney blacklisted the LA Times from film reviews because it wrote about their shady theme park practices
– genevieve? (@an_mistake) April 27, 2020
Some Twitter users use the hashtag to cheer on Disney Tweets, which they probably don't want to use for their Star Wars campaign.
please feel free to use this! ??# MayThe4th pic.twitter.com/cWfIgufVv1
– Bill Corbett (@BillCorbett) April 27, 2020
Disney is back steering
Finally, in a new tweet, Disney clarified what the terms of use actually mean. Just tweets, that come in response to the above, the hashtag # MayThe4th and also mention Disney + may be used for advertising purposes.
The above legal language applies ONLY to replies to this tweet using # MayThe4th and mentioning @DisneyPlus. These replies may appear in something special on May the 4th!
– Disney + (@disneyplus) April 27, 2020
But the mockery of the network could no longer be stopped. This will probably not detract from the success of Disney +. Because the streaming service already set up a number of users in 5 months, for which competitor Netflix took years.