Canadian singer-songwriter, Avril Lavigne, recently expressed her disgust via Twitter on what she considers to be an outright act of bullying from Mark Zuckerberg to the Canadian rock band, Nickelback.
The Facebook co-founder published video three days ago on his official channel, where he formally introduced the Jarvis AI home assistant, voiced by veteran American actor Morgan Freeman.
In the video, he commands Jarvis to “play some good Nickelback songs,” just like he would do with an Amazon Echo Dot, for example. Jarvis, however, refuses to do so while adding that “there are no good Nickelback songs.”
Lavigne, who was married to Nickelback’s lead singer Chad Kroeger, published a statement urging Facebook to stop promoting this kind of jokes, stating they were getting old and also that it constitutes a form of bullying.
The singer considers Facebook’s joke to be “in poor taste”
Following the video’s publishing, Lavigne’s response was more than a tweet. It was a lengthy statement that many commenters argued took things out of proportion.
Facebook has not responded to recent requests for comment made by numerous online sources, and Mark Zuckerberg has not made any official statements either.
Chad Kroeger has also failed to make a statement regarding what happened, nor has any other Nickelback member.
Nickelback: Band or meme?
Zuckerberg is not the first person to joke about Nickelback’s music. In fact, the whole Internet community has been bullying the band for years.
Even though Nickelback has sold over 50 million albums worldwide, as Lavigne cleverly points out in her statement, and the band enjoys an excellent roster of number one singles, they currently hold an individual page on KnowYourMeme, up and running since 2012.
The group, the website states, has received criticism for “failing to innovate,” among other reasons. Almost a year ago, an Australian police department comically tried to charge the band with “crimes against music.”
Other highlights of this internet-born joke include the ‘Nickleblock’ app, who played a Nickelback song whenever a user tried to get in contact with their ex.
The singer’s tweet currently has more than 68,000 retweets and 16,000 likes, which is not too shabby but also not very impressive for a celebrity with 20 million followers.
Source: CNET