The United States Army has deleted a tweet after it was accussed of racism, only to provoke more anger for political correctness "gone mad".
Last week, the official Twitter account circulated a link referring to gaps in its special operations capabilities.
It read: "chinks in special ops’ digital and physical armour poses challenges, experts say" and linked to a media release which has since been edited to remove the phrase.
The noun "chink" means a crack, cleft or fissure, or narrow opening, and is often used in the idiom "chink in one's armour" to refer to an area of vulnerability.
But the tweet was received with outrage by some, who pointed out that the word "chink" can also be used as a racist term referring to people of Chinese descent.
The Army, which maintains a Twitter account with more than 591,000 followers, has deleted the tweet, prompting others to say that the army had "succumbed to the perpetually outraged".
US Amy public affairs officer Lt. Col. Alayne Conway told The Washington Post the military intended no offense, expressing surprise at the reaction to the tweet.
"The phrase and word have been in use for more than 600 years; it is a proper noun, meaning a ‘crack’ or ‘fissure,’ as defined by Webster’s," she said.
"Nevertheless, based on feedback from some followers who expressed offense, we deleted it. It was certainly not our intention to offend anyone."
But for some, the absence of a full apology wasn't good enough.
It remains unclear exactly how many Twitter users were genuinely offended by the term and how many were "trolling" or expressing "mock outrage".
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