Twitter and Facebook gaffes of 2015

Another year, another 12 months of social media mishaps. This unfortunate juxtaposition by the Daily Telegraph after the sentencing of terror plotter Mark Colborne last week was the latest in a long line of such bungles. Police forces, politicians and media organisations - including the BBC - feature prominently in the list of shame, as this roundup reveals.

We start with this well-meaning tweet from Humberside Police. As a sign of community cohesion the force posted a picture with the hashtag #WeStandTogether - only they were standing upside down.

It is easily done and the error was quickly corrected with the fresh caption "not defying gravity".

Another police tweet and this time it's the Leicestershire force with this far-from-revealing CCTV image. Recognise the back of this man's head?

Us neither.

While we're on the subject of images released of crime suspects, here's a crook who appears to be too short for the camera.

Although, to be fair to Lincolnshire Police, at the time it was sent, the image was visible on mobile devices and the issue has since been addressed by Twitter on the desktop version.

Sticking with crime, in an attempt to catch a thief, Northumbria Police appealed for help in the curious case of the missing beach towel.

Within a day, the tweet had been shared more than 1,000 times with nearly 600, mainly negative, comments. The force said it would learn lessons.

"We realise we seem to have kicked sand in our own face and so we may have to ride the wave on this one," a spokesman said.

But sometimes a tweet can have serious consequences - as with the case of this "joker" from Bristol.

It would appear no cyclists were harmed in the making of this message, but that didn't stop police contacting Rayhan Qadar, who lost his job as a stockbroker.

Never a stranger to controversy on Twitter, former Corby MP Louise Mensch lit up the Twittersphere when she accused supporters of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of being anti-Semitic.

But when she posted a picture of her Twitter search bar with what she claimed were auto-completed phrases - giving an indication of what people are talking about - it was quickly pointed out the image revealed her own search history.

She later admitted the error but stood by her accusations.

While some might blush at their blunders, others take ownership, like former MP and shadow chancellor Ed Balls who now has a day named after him because of an inadvertent tweet.

Four years ago he accidentally tweeted his own name and now, every year on 28 April, the name Ed Balls trends throughout the UK.

It has been seized upon by many and this year his wife joined in on the general social media bonhomie.

And no end-of-year review would be complete without a bit of festive folly - here's Father Christmas leaving a Nottinghamshire police station, apparently on bail.

There is, however, no suggestion of wrongdoing on Santa's part.

Or there's the plain silly. Like this from Sherwood MP Mark Spencer with a giant cat in Westminster.

And, in case we are accused of throwing stones in glass houses...

Time travelling in the present - it's here and now. Here's to a less calamitous 2016.