Free speech is a wonderful thing, no matter how offensive you can get, as long as you have the gall to stand behind your statements, you can freely say what you want, and face whatever people throw back at you. Or so goes the concept of online posting. Just like “mutually assured destruction” (or MAD), no identified individual would easily say something rude unless they were prepared to stand up for it.

An employee of Vodafone however, decided that it would be safer to be discriminating of gender and to be abhorrently sexist in a Tweet using the anonymous veil of the official Vodafone account on the micro-blogging site. The individual was caught internally and has already been suspended. To assure the recipients that they have not been hacked, other employees of Vodafone quickly sent apologies and explanations through Twitter that explained the situation.

Anyway, aside from that little problem, the Vodafone’s world is doing pretty well. The company is considered to be the best provider of 3G network services in the UK, with many iPhone users switching from other networks (well, just O2 –or so reports say). It has also been announced that the mobile network provider would be bringing over the Nexus One and the Apple iPhone; though details on the release of the devices have not been announced.

On a side note, the proposed Orange and T-Mobile merger is still being delayed by investigations. Should the merger push through, Vodafone would cease to be the largest mobile network operator in the region –a position the company is fully enjoying for now.

Back to Twitter, Vodafone’s account is once again secure, while it seems unlikely that the company would ever announce the results of the investigation, it is good to know that everything is back in place.

Get more details on the Vodafone Tweet at the source.