An incredible thread by a member of the Yorkshire Tea’s social media team to urge Twitter users to “try to be kind” after the firm got involved in a row that started with a tweet posted by the new Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

So it’s been a rough weekend.

On Friday, the Chancellor shared a photo of our tea.

Politicians do that sometimes (Jeremy Corbyn did it in 2017).

We weren’t asked or involved – and we said so the same day.

Lots of people got angry with us all the same.

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We’ve spent the last three days answering furious accusations and boycott calls.

For some, our tea just being drunk by someone they don’t like means it’s forever tainted, and they’ve made sure we know it.

It’s been pretty shocking to see the determination some have had to drag us into a political mudfight. But it’s been lovely to see others speak up for us – we’re so grateful to everyone who’s done that in a civil way (and gutted to see some use it as a reason for more nastiness).

Speaking directly now, as the person who’s been answering these tweets, I know it could have been much worse. It’s easier to be on the receiving end of this as a brand than as an individual. There’s more emotional distance and I’ve had a team to support me when it got a bit much.

But for anyone about to vent their rage online, even to a company – please remember there’s a human on the other end of it, and try to be kind.

[This piece was first published as a Twitter thread and turned into the above article on 24 February 2020 with the purpose of reaching a larger audience. It has been minorly edited and corrected. | The author of the tweets writes in a personal capacity.]

(Cover: Flickr/Jennie. / Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)