The Toronto Maple Leafs issued an apology one day after they rattled their fans by unfollowing thousands of people on Twitter.
On Friday evening, fans of the Maple Leafs took to the Internet to express their anger after they realized the team no longer followed them.
Hey @MapleLeafs We get you're a playoff team now. That doesn't mean you should unfollow everyone that that stood by you till then #TMLtalk
— #BringBackBowen (@LeafsGuyCarlo) April 28, 2017
Why did @MapleLeafs unfollow everyone? When they followed me on my 14th birthday, it was the best day ever! But now the memory is lost...
— Ainsley (@Ainsley117) April 29, 2017
The Maple Leafs released a statement on Saturday afternoon saying that the move was not spiteful.
“The Maple Leafs social media channels are one of the team’s most important tools to engage and communicate with you, our fans,” the statement said. “Yesterday, as we begin work this off-season to make improvements to all of our social media channels, we reset the list of Twitter accounts we follow to make sure it is current and represents the team, and all of its fans, accurately and fairly.”
As well, the team said they apologize for not warning their fans in advance of the execution.
“What we didn’t do is tell our fans what we were doing and why and for that we apologize. Our intentions remain fan focused, but our mistake was not making the process more fan friendly.”
Fans took to Twitter again after the Maple Leafs tweeted out the statement to express their hope for the future of the team.
@MapleLeafs It's the beginning of the next �� years. Change was inevitable. Appreciate the update! Can't wait for next season! #GoLeafsGo #TMLtalk
— Brad Rose (@Liquid_Area) April 29, 2017
@MapleLeafs thanks for the update��. Can't wait to see what's coming:).
— Laurie (@laurie029) April 29, 2017
After the mass deletion, the Twitter account was only following Maple Leafs’ president Brendan Shanahan. A new account had been created at the time using the handle @TMLTalk_Leafs.
The alleged new account tweeted, “We would like to apologize for the unfollow, this way we will be able to interact with the fans more efficiently #TMLTalk.”
However, the account has since been suspended.
According to their statement, the Maple Leafs Twitter account will begin following the accounts that they believe will help their fans interact with them.
The account is currently following 72 people, and has 1.5 million followers.
