Pizza Hut Malaysia was criticised after their account tweeted a reply to a thread putting down another user who had espoused views on transgender women and the Islamic concept of aurat.

PETALING JAYA, Aug 8 — Pizza Hut Malaysia has declined to make public the social media agency it said it had fired after a blunder on Twitter.

The company was criticised after their account tweeted a reply to a thread putting down another user who had espoused views on transgender women and the Islamic concept of aurat.

It deleted the offending tweet and apologised yesterday, but Twitter users were dissatisfied and demanded that the company identify the blundering agency.

Pizza Hut today said it could not reveal details of their social media agency in adherence with ‘business ethics’.

“We don’t think that we should [reveal their name] because terminating the services of the social media agency is already quite a serious thing, and it’s also a serious thing for the agency,” Chief Marketing Officer of Pizza Hut Malaysia Jean Ler told Malay Mail.

“We shouldn’t put them in public in that kind of position.”

Twitter user @kakkumei, the person that the offensive tweet had referenced, expressed disappointment at the fact that they were initially left out of Pizza Hut Malaysia’s apology.

Dude, you didn't even apologise to me personally. This is just damage control. https://t.co/QJ7M4dXDcD — Kakkumei (@kakkumei) August 7, 2018

When asked if @kakkumei would receive any form of recompense for the incident, Ler said that they believed they had already handled the situation appropriately.

“The statement was clear in saying that we apologise for what has happened and clarified that we are never in the position to involve ourselves in any of these topics,” she said.

“What @kakkumei has mentioned is that we had left her out in tagging when we put out the statement, so we subsequently did that.”

Ler also emphasised the company’s neutral standpoint towards sensitive topics concerning issues of identity and sexuality.

“We don’t have any views on any of this, whether it’s religion, sexuality, race, or gender. Everyone has their own views but our position, as a policy, is to not be involved in any of this,” she said.

The tweet that sparked the outcry on social media also raises questions about how local companies handle discriminatory attitudes in the workplace.

“We do have training in place to remind our staff that whatever their personal views are, it’s their personal opinion only,” Ler said when asked about company policies that protect workers and customers from discrimination.

She then spoke about the company’s goal to give the best product to their patrons regardless of their social identity.

“Pizza Hut has always had a mission to serve every customer the best pizza, and of course, pizza is for everyone to enjoy.”