SHILLONG:
In this day and age of social media, trolling someone and making them believe just about anything becomes easy. Such became the case when a new country was introduced on micro blogging site Twitter.
A user by the name Gaspardo shared a photoshopped map showing a fictional country by the name Listenbourg that was randomly placed onto the Iberian peninsula. The post was supposed to be just a jab at Americans and their supposed lack of knowledge of geography.
Gaspardo had posted the map with a red arrow pointing at the piece of land that had been added to Portugal and Spain and coloured green to signify it was a European Union member state, on his Twitter page on October 30. He had simply captioned it: I’m sure Americans don’t even know the name of this country.
It has been only five days since the post was put up, but it has garnered over 9,000 retweets and over 105k likes and the numbers keep climbing.
Je suis sûr que les américains ne connaissent même pas le nom de ce pays ptdrrr pic.twitter.com/aecSupQdyU
— Gas🅿️ardo (@gaspardooo) October 30, 2022
The joke would have ended there had it not been for other netizens adding more content and memes to the already popular tweet. While one created a high-definition satellite map of the area claiming that the country really exists, others began to claim that Listenbourg has its own Formula 1 Grand Prix, national anthem and government.
A video, on a purportedly official Listenbourg government account, has also appeared on YouTube featuring the national anthem with a red-and-white flag sporting a golden eagle.
There were others who claimed that the country was run by ‘extreme-centre party’, whose leader pledged to ‘improve Listenbourg’s image abroad’. Apart from that, a Twitter account has cropped up claiming to be the country’s Ministry of Interior and it is already offering to answer any questions regarding its identity documents and visas. The account in question has already garnered more followers than most.
Pour toutes procédures administratives liées au papiers d'identités & visas n'hésitez pas à nous contacter!
Für alle administrativen Anfragen zu Ausweisen und Visa kontaktieren Sie uns bitte!
For all administrative procedures related to identity papers & visas contact us! pic.twitter.com/nmCgUgYXfR
— Ministry of the Interior (@IntrListenbourg) November 1, 2022
Even though all of it is fictional, people are not letting up and have continued adding to the comical memes, with even big, professional accounts joining in the fun.