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"We apologize if we offended anyone."

The Chainsmokers have apologised for joking about Chinese people eating dogs.

As part of their tour, the ‘Closer’ singers visited China to play at electronic music festival Ultra China. During their stay, the American duo sat down for an interview – a video of which was shared on their Twitter account.

In the now-deleted video, The Chainsmokers’ Alex Pall was asked if he brings his dogs on tour with him.

“Well I don’t know if I’d bring her to China,” Pall said, before bursting into laughter. According to Buzzfeed, the interviewer then looked at the camera and tried to ask another question. Pall, who was still in hysterics was not able to answer it.

Twitter users took to the platform to express their dismay at the group. Many called the group out for being racist.

“I didnt know that chainsmokers has a reputation of being racist among other stuff,” wrote one Twitter user. “I never really followed them. I was just amazed that.”

Another claimed to have liked their music prior to this incident. “i mean i like chainsmokers music but now they out here being racist, [sic]” the Twitter user wrote.

One user took the opportunity to slam the band’s talents too, “the chainsmokers are racist but jokes on them all their songs sound the same&their lyrics sound straight out of an angsty 10th graders diary [sic]” 

The Chainsmokers have since published a written apology via Twitter. “I made a comment in an interview about being hesitant to bring my dog, Cheddar, to China because I have read reports about dogs being slaughtered in certain provinces,” the post beings.

The group claimed that the video was somehow intended to show their love for China. “We originally posted a video to share how much we love China and our fans there. We would never intentionally do anything to upset our fans and we apologize if we offended anyone.”

Bringing the post to an end, the group took the opportunity to encourage readers to fight against the slaughtering of dogs in Yulin. “Anyone who wants to help prevent the slaughter of dogs please visit http://www.stopyulinforever.org“

However, Twitter users were clearly not sold on the group’s apology. “This apology doesn’t even sound genuine at all. keep it. [sic]” wrote one user.

“You did not misunderstand it. They said something racist and are faking an apology for it now because they got called out,” wrote another.

“This was a half-assed apology saying “sorry you were offended” instead of “sorry for my ignorance and tasteless humour””, one user wrote.