Elon Musk criticised for ‘Wermacht imagery’ in controversial tweet

Twitter users have taken Elon Musk to task after the platform’s new owner posted a meme to his account. Mr Musk, who bought Twitter a fortnight ago, attracted criticism after he posted a black-and-white image of a soldier carrying pigeons on his back with the caption “three unread messages”. But users informed him he’d made an embarrassing gaffe, as the image he used was of a Nazi soldier.The Twitter CEO used the photo to joke about the platform by adding a red number two to the bird cage, drawing a comparison to social media notifications and writing “how times have changed”.He added two other tweets, one musing about “back when birds were real” and another questioning that if “Twitter is bird, that’s [sic] means…”.One user took the founder to task for the original photo, which he claimed showed “carrier pigeons of the German Wehrmacht from World War II”.Mathias Richel, the founder of German strategic communications firm Richel, Stauss, took the Twitter founder to task for his embarrassing misstep.READ MORE: Republicans endorsed by Musk in midterms as US on verge of red wave Elon Musk criticised for ‘Wermacht imagery’ in new Twitter post (Image: GETTY) Elon Musk posted an image of a Wermacht soldier to Twitter (Image: TWITTER)The caption states the soldier was serving with the Wehrmacht, and he carried “a cage of carrier pigeons used for relaying messages on the western front”.The description adds that a photographer captured the image during the German invasion of France around May 1940.Other Twitter users have condemned the post, which remains on Mr Musk’s profile.One said: “Birds are not free.. bird app is also not free.”DON’T MISSUkraine LIVE: Putin dealt hammer blow as Donetsk ‘littered with bodies’ after bloodbath – LIVE BLOGPutin’s priest who demanded Russian women have more sons after war deaths blown up – INSIGHTRussian soldier admits Moscow ‘blowing up ammunition’ in Kherson in leaked call – VIDEO Mr Musk replied with another two posts to the thread (Image: TWITTER)User @Nojus99382419 said: “He’s doing it again. He’s trolling the leftists so hard.”Mr Musk has become much more active on Twitter since acquiring the site earlier this month but has made some unpopular decisions.He has implemented a much-criticised choice to charge $8 for Twitter Blue, which allows people to purchase verification.People have suggested the move will allow people to impersonate someone else, and several blue tick users have protested by impersonating Mr Musk.