While she may not have won the Oscar for Best Actress on Sunday night, 9-year-old Oscar nominee Quvenzhane Wallis won plenty of fans for her confident attitude in the presence of some of Hollywood’s elite movie makers.

The night would have been perfect for Wallis had The Onion not called her a “c***.”

On Sunday night, the satirical news organization posted the following tweet to Twitter: “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a cunt, right? #Oscars2013.”

Calling a 9-year-old a word that she probably doesn’t even know the meaning of is usually an indication that one should think twice before tweeting it to more than 4.5 million followers.

Facing pressure to issue a public apology, CEO Steve Hannah posted an apology on The Onion’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

“On behalf of The Onion, I offer my personal apology to Quvenzhané Wallis and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the tweet that was circulated last night during the Oscars. It was crude and offensive—not to mention inconsistent with The Onion’s commitment to parody and satire, however biting. No person should be subjected to such a senseless, humorless comment masquerading as satire. The tweet was taken down within an hour of publication,” read the apology.

Hannah added that The Onion is now implementing stricter protocols for the news organization’s social networking accounts.

“We have instituted new and tighter Twitter procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not occur again.

Hannah also promised to “discipline” the individuals involved in posting the vulgar tweet to Twitter.

“In addition, we are taking immediate steps to discipline those individuals responsible. Miss Wallis, you are young and talented and deserve better. All of us at The Onion are deeply sorry.”

Though Jennifer Lawrence took home the Oscar for Best Actress, the 9-year-old actress will star in Jay-Z’s remake of “Annie.” According to NME, Wallis replaces Willow Smith, who is said to have outgrown the role.