'What the f**k': Sarah Sanders blasted for using official White House Twitter account to slam Amazon
It is not immediately clear how her two-year-old son's yelling caused the Amazon Echo to order this particular toy.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders took to Twitter to complain about Amazon after her two-year-old child was able to use the Echo to mistakenly buy a pricey Batman toy. On Sunday (14 January), Sanders slammed the Jeff Bezos-owned company saying her son was able to accidentally purchase the toy simply by yelling "Batman!" repeatedly.
"Alexa, we have a problem if my 2 year old can order a Batman toy by yelling 'Batman!' over and over again into the Echo," Sanders tweeted, along with a photo of the order confirmation for a $79.99 "Batman vs Superman" action figure by Sure Things Toys.
It is not immediately clear how her two-year-old's shouts caused the Amazon Echo to order this particular toy.
Amazon's Voice Purchasing function for its Alexa speakers requires users to confirm their desired purchase before continuing by saying "Yes." Users can further secure the feature to prevent any inadvertent orders, particularly by young children, by disabling the feature or creating a four-digit passcode.
Amazon has not yet responded to Sanders' complaint that was shared with her more than 2.5 million followers.
Many social media users furiously slammed Sanders for using an official account to criticise a company over a personal matter. Sarah Sanders has two personal Twitter accounts @SarahHuckabee and @SHSanders45 which she hasn't used much since taking on the official @PressSec account governed by the White House.
"Alexa, can you track @PressSec inappropriate use of an official Twitter account? Thanks" one Twitter user wrote while a second person questioned: "Is this official government news?"
"Not sure you understand the purpose of the official @PressSec Twitter handle," another said.
While some users reminded her that you can disable the Voice Purchasing Feature on Amazon's voice-enabled speakers, others joked that referring to her two-year-old "is an interesting way of referring to the president".
Other people questioned her claim that screaming "Batman" over and over again at your Echo would trigger a transaction.
"Yes the problem is the @PressSec just announced to the world she has an Alexa device and probably does NOT have a secure home network," a user wrote. "Also she hasn't enabled Alexa features that would prevent this errant transaction."
Someone furiously questioned: "What the f**k are you doing?"
Alexa, we have a problem if my 2 year old can order a Batman toy by yelling "Batman!" over and over again into the Echo pic.twitter.com/7uF0d2fmD8
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 14, 2018
You have bigger problems.
— RPBP (@rpbp) January 14, 2018
Is this your personal account? Or professional?
— FAK Cancer (@FakCancer) January 14, 2018
— HLBarrus (@HLMullaney) January 14, 2018
This is fake news as proven here pic.twitter.com/UDagUWY8c2
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) January 14, 2018
Inappropriately using technology, to complain about how you set up a piece of technology, that you don't know how to use? That computes.
— Levii Smith (@SmithLevii) January 15, 2018
Next time RTFM. pic.twitter.com/egFwr4iiGt
Oh my gosh what a crisis! That's so much worse than, say, an entire state thinking they're about to be bombed thanks to a false alarm and the President continuing on with his golf game like nothing happened instead of assuaging their fears like a real leader. You poor thing!
— Amanda Bell (@AmandaJuneBell) January 14, 2018
now you understand why we worry about that orange diaper man and the nuclear weapon button.
— rstevens ðŸ³ðŸ’¨ (@rstevens) January 15, 2018
Maybe this IS an official tweet. Is @realDonaldTrump looking out of the window searching for a bat signal 🦇 in the sky?
— Sheila O'Flanagan (@sheilaoflanagan) January 15, 2018
Now the official @PressSec account is being used to attack Amazon... totally a coincidence, I'm sure. https://t.co/KWIi4w4Wi2
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) January 15, 2018
Hmm... since she tweeted about her Amazon purchases and Alexa’s voice capabilities from her official @PressSec account, can we file FOIA request for her Amazon history? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
— Brett Morrison (@brettmorrison) January 14, 2018
Alexa, can you let the lying, ethically challenged Press Secretary know that it’s way inappropriate of her to be using her govt acct to rag on/complain to a private company.
— SlyM (@SlyM) January 15, 2018
Thanks Alexa.
Hey, can you tell your 2 year old to start yelling “New President†over and over and see what Alexa does? Thnx.
— Andrew Timoni (@AndrewTimoni) January 15, 2018
Alexa, is it an ethics violation if the press secretary to the White House uses their Twitter account to disparage a private company thereby encouraging consumers to use competing products?
— FightingForFacts (@skilledscribe) January 14, 2018
and this dumb @PressSec just told everyone and anyone she has an amazon echo with a microphone and on wireless. Very likely still with the default login: admin password: password
— ALT- Immigration 🛂 (@ALT_uscis) January 15, 2018
do you seriously think she bothered setting it up correctly?
— ALT- Immigration 🛂 (@ALT_uscis) January 15, 2018
She probably opened the box, gave that think a good side eye for a minute until she figured out where the power plug goes, plugged it, and quickly sent a press release with the headline: Sarah Sanders is now an engineer
If you were a low-level staffer with no press duties in a big department, @PressSec, your boss might just stroll into your office and ask you to delete this. But you're not that. Employees throughout govt look to you to set an example because tone from the top matters. Do better.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 14, 2018
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