This guy's mom made him internet famous in the worst possible way with one ill-advised tweet

All of us have been embarrassed by our relatives at one point or another. Perhaps it was that time your mum asked your friend whether they were your boyfriend/girlfriend (or worse, "special friend"), or that one incident in which your dad thought it would be a good idea to surprise you at work and give you an over-the-top hair ruffle in front of all your colleagues.

And now that they have social media, they're even worse.

Aunties are running rampage posting semi-nude pictures of their nieces and nephews as toddlers on Facebook, grandparents are asking their teenage grandkids to "get them on the snapchat", and anyone whose uncle has an Instagram account should be nervously counting down the days until they get tagged in a story.

But very few people can claim to have had an experience as bad as Pieter Hanson, whose mother created a viral hashtag when she claimed that he "won't go on solo dates due to the current climate of false sexual accusations".

The tweet, which was accompanied by a picture of Pieter in a dashing sailor's suit, took the internet by storm - but for all the wrong reasons.

Within hours, thousands of people were retweeting the #HimToo hashtag - either to call it out for being baseless and stupid, or to post their own parody versions of the original tweet.

Then things got a little more interesting when Pieter's brother, Jon, popped up on Twitter to address some of the claims that his mother had made about Pieter. As it turns out, BlueStarNavyMom3 had basically made the whole thing up in order to fit her own narrative.

Credit: Twitter

To prove that Jon was actually Pieter's brother, he posted this photo:

He then went on to relay how Pieter was feeling about the whole situation.

"This has gotten bigger than I anticipated. I’m telling my brother to make a twitter account," he said. "He’s making one but we are on the phone with the media right now. Crazy."

Within hours of the original tweet going super viral, Pieter finally stepped up to give his side of the story.

Under the username @Thatwasmymom, Twitter's new favourite meme explained: "That was my Mom. Sometimes the people we love do things that hurt us without realizing it. Let’s turn this around. I respect and #BelieveWomen. I never have and never will support #HimToo. I’m a proud Navy vet, Cat Dad and Ally. Also, Twitter, your meme game is on point."

Oh, and he shared his own version of the original snap:

Thankfully, the Navy vet was gracious about the whole situation, and didn't insult his mother in any way when explaining what had happened. Instead, he used his newfound internet fame to spread positivity and to encourage more people to follow the original #MeToo movement by believing women who have been victims of sexual harassment or assault.

And that's how you deal with embarrassing relatives on social media.