NBC News on Tuesday faced wide outrage on social media following a tweet depicting American actor Kevin Hart as Jamaican former sprinter Usain Bolt.
The tweet contained a news article about the Olympic medalist and world record holder Bolt who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 following his Monday announcement that he was quarantining himself shortly after celebrating his 34th birthday.
Marlon Walker, a journalist at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, was one of the first to notice the NBC News tweet error, questioning if there was anyone “Black” among the social media staff of the news organization.
“Is there nobody Black on the @NBCNews social staff? That is not @usainbolt. It’s @KevinHart4real,” Walker tweeted. “As journalists, our credibility is everything”.
Twitter users suggested, “maybe some more diversity would have prevented” mistaking an African-American comedian for a Jamaican sprinter, pointing out that “Kevin Hart are two different Black men”.
Netizens responded to the error, mocking an “apparent” likeness between Bolt and Hart.
NBC News corrected that error and attributed it to “a technical problem”.
“A previous version of this article included an incorrect photo on some platforms due to a technical problem. The photo depicted actor Kevin Hart. It has been replaced with a photo of Usain Bolt,” the outlet said.
Hart reacted to the error stating, “No comment” but then wondering whether he had “gotten really fast & tall overnight”.
“No comment 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️.....I must of gotten really fast & tall overnight....I want to take advantage of this moment & race anybody in the world. We can bet whatever....Shit just got real. I am also no longer doing comedy due to my Olympic training schedule,” Hart wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.