Disney has managed to piss off fans again by claiming ownership of the MayThe4th hashtag on Twitter.
The Disney+ account obviously has something lined up for the big day, and wanted to encourage fans to get involved. It put out a call for them to “celebrate the saga” by replying to its tweet with a favourite Star Wars memory using the MayThe4th hashtag, telling them “you may see it somewhere special” on Star Wars day. The Twitter account immediately followed up by tweeting out a load of legal-sounding jargon and quoting Disney’s terms of use, which, as you might imagine, didn’t go down well. It’s almost on par with Disney attempting to claim ownership of a photo of Denmark’s Little Mermaid statue. You don’t own everything, guy. Back off.
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
People wasted no time in telling Disney to do one, with our favourite selection of responses posted below for your perusal.
What the shit is this dystopian nonsense
— PARTY CHICKEN PT. DEUX???????? (@_Party_Chicken2) April 27, 2020
My favorite Star Wars memory would have to be the time Disney tried to lay legal claim to every tweet on Twitter that used a particular hashtag. #MayThe4th pic.twitter.com/7fDB3LKUlw
— Itsukushimi ???? (@Itsukushimi777) April 27, 2020
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
You know that’s not how this works right. You can’t just scream a terms of service agreement into the void and then assume anyone who does something falling in line has seen it and agreed. No one who tweets #Maythe4th has agreed legally to your tos.
— Sasam (@SasamBots) April 27, 2020
By sharing your message with me using #Caturday you agree to giving me all your cats, terms of use here: https://t.co/0hXALb3eCY
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) April 27, 2020
— Emil – Den Ægte (@denaegteemil) April 27, 2020
Disney has since followed up its absolute nonsense tweet, but funnily enough that hasn’t stopped the barrage of disgruntled Twitter users who are still getting over the company’s cheek.
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
The Disney+ social media team is going to have sift through a lot of tweets that have sod all to do with Star Wars to dig out those memories that you no longer have ownership of because you dared to use a hashtag that the House of Mouse has decided to co-opt. So that’ll be fun!
Hi, Disney Plus! #MayThe4th is very close to MayTheFirst, so let’s talk about Walt Disney’s labor practices. It’s what gave us Pogo, since you forced Walt Kelly out. https://t.co/pjbXSEQcwo https://t.co/Uu5vf57N7D https://t.co/WKrkIylbVy pic.twitter.com/senLK29t1k
— Jason Scott (@textfiles) April 27, 2020
I have so many fond memories of Star Wars ☺️ #MayThe4th pic.twitter.com/SUGeCumaUt
— Lindsey (@Lunacial) April 27, 2020
#MayThe4th @disneyplus pic.twitter.com/s9XQCQZmb2
— King Fish (@gojiman42) April 27, 2020
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.