I woke up this morning and discovered that Twitter had exploded with rage over this Tweet:
“Going to Africa, Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”
I would have posted the original Tweet, but the Twitter account that it came from has been deleted. That’s likely due to the fact that Ms. Justine Sacco, the person behind that rather offensive Tweet, is a PR person for Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp. Who are they you ask? Well, here’s a list of what they control. It includes OKCupid, Ask.com, Vimeo, and Dictionary.com. Given her line of work, you’d think she would know better. But clearly she didn’t. The Tweet was apparently posted from Heathrow Airport before she boarded a flight to South Africa. That’s not all. On Thursday, she apparently ripped into a “weird German dude” in first class who had body odor. Earlier on Friday, she posted a tweet that she was back in London among the “cucumber sandwiches” and “bad teeth.” Clearly she has had a history of ill advised Tweets. Unfortunately for her the AIDS related Tweet was found and it set off a firestorm on Twitter while she was in the air to South Africa. As a result, the hashtag “hasjustinelanded” started trending worldwide. Not only that, someone bought the domain name justinesacco.com and directed it to a charity called Aid For Africa. Thus putting a positive spin on a negative story. That prompted this Tweet from Aid For Africa:
Apparently, donations are flowing into the charity as I type this. That’s a very good thing. But her employer was less than charitable. Here’s a statement that they had to put out:
This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC. Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.
I’m guessing that she’s about to get fired as you would expect when someone does something this stupid. But only after they talk to her. If it were me, I would have just fired her.
So, back to Justine. When she landed in South Africa, she had company as someone was waiting for her:
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414266460656369664
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414267336431251456
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414267832034394112
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414269069270200320
This once again proves what I’ve been saying over, and over, and over again. You have to be very careful about what you say on social media or it will bite you in the posterior. Guaranteed. Oh, and stay tuned for updates as it’s a safe bet that this story isn’t over.
UPDATE: IAC is looking for a new PR person because the Toronto Star is reporting that Sacco has been fired.
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This entry was posted on December 21, 2013 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Justine Sacco Illustrates How To Lose A Job In 140 Characters [UPDATED]
I woke up this morning and discovered that Twitter had exploded with rage over this Tweet:
“Going to Africa, Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”
I would have posted the original Tweet, but the Twitter account that it came from has been deleted. That’s likely due to the fact that Ms. Justine Sacco, the person behind that rather offensive Tweet, is a PR person for Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp. Who are they you ask? Well, here’s a list of what they control. It includes OKCupid, Ask.com, Vimeo, and Dictionary.com. Given her line of work, you’d think she would know better. But clearly she didn’t. The Tweet was apparently posted from Heathrow Airport before she boarded a flight to South Africa. That’s not all. On Thursday, she apparently ripped into a “weird German dude” in first class who had body odor. Earlier on Friday, she posted a tweet that she was back in London among the “cucumber sandwiches” and “bad teeth.” Clearly she has had a history of ill advised Tweets. Unfortunately for her the AIDS related Tweet was found and it set off a firestorm on Twitter while she was in the air to South Africa. As a result, the hashtag “hasjustinelanded” started trending worldwide. Not only that, someone bought the domain name justinesacco.com and directed it to a charity called Aid For Africa. Thus putting a positive spin on a negative story. That prompted this Tweet from Aid For Africa:
Apparently, donations are flowing into the charity as I type this. That’s a very good thing. But her employer was less than charitable. Here’s a statement that they had to put out:
This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC. Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.
I’m guessing that she’s about to get fired as you would expect when someone does something this stupid. But only after they talk to her. If it were me, I would have just fired her.
So, back to Justine. When she landed in South Africa, she had company as someone was waiting for her:
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414266460656369664
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414267336431251456
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414267832034394112
https://twitter.com/Zac_R/status/414269069270200320
This once again proves what I’ve been saying over, and over, and over again. You have to be very careful about what you say on social media or it will bite you in the posterior. Guaranteed. Oh, and stay tuned for updates as it’s a safe bet that this story isn’t over.
UPDATE: IAC is looking for a new PR person because the Toronto Star is reporting that Sacco has been fired.
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This entry was posted on December 21, 2013 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.