Landlords Union Inadvertently Used A Picture Of Auschwitz On Twitter
An apology tweeted by the British Landlord’s Union. Image by Twitter
(JTA) — The Landlords Union, an organization in the United Kingdom, is under fire for using a photo of Auschwitz to illustrate a news release about new government policies against rogue landlords.
The image reportedly first appeared on the news release on the union’s property118.com website two weeks ago, the British tabloid Metro reported, but was only removed on Monday.
A post with the same image also appeared on Twitter.
“Disgusting use of this photograph. I suggest you go and visit Auschwitz you then might realize how inappropriate this picture is. Remove it as soon as possible,” read one response. “Was wondering how it relates to their article,” read another. “Quite shocking,” read another response.
In a post to property118.com on Tuesday morning, Neil Patterson, identified as a member of The Landlord’s Union, posted an apology for using the image, saying “I had no idea that the image I selected was one of Auschwitz and I certainly didn’t intend to offend the memorial or indeed anybody else.” He said he found the photo after searching for the keyword Prison on the Pexels stock images website. He added that Pexels also has since removed the image.
In addition to the apology, Patterson made a donation to the Auschwitz Memorial.
He said he did not know about the Twitter storm over the image since he does not have a Twitter account. He added that the use of the image also had been reported to Twitter, who emailed the Union on Tuesday morning to say that the “were taking no action on the basis that we had not breached their T&C’s or any copyright or other laws,” according to Patterson.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
