When Justine Sacco, ex-senior director of corporate communications, opened a Twitter account, she probably didn't realize it would get her fired.
Justine Sacco tweeted on Friday night, and the internet exploded in angry criticism of her 'inappropriate' and 'racist' sentiments. The company she worked for, IAC (an internet i) has reacted to this unwanted publicity by firing her, stating that her tweet does not reflect the company's philosophy.
“The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question,” a spokesperson for IAC said on Saturday.
Sacco went off the internet grid, giving Twitter users enough time to react to her offensive tweet. They even created a #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag which trended heavily as user after user aired their grievances against her tweet via the hashtag. The social media fire burst into full conflagration as several media houses took on the story and added their spin on things.
As soon as she arrived South Africa, Justine Sacco deleted her Twitter account, but she was spotted by a local Twitter user in Cape Town who took a photo of her and shared it on Twitter.
Justine Sacco then created a new Twitter account (@JustineSacco6) to post apologies for her tweet, but the general reaction was that she felt no actual remorse but was trying to get her job back.
The underlying question here is: why Africa? Why does this always happen to Africa? There are several people who, for example, do not know that Africa is a continent, and not a country.
And - why do people often equate Africa to HIV/AIDS? Are we the victims of bad PR or is there some underlying truth in these slanderous 'banter' and 'jokes'? When Justine Sacco, ex-senior director of corporate communications, opened a Twitter account, she probably didn't realize it would get her fired.
Justine Sacco tweeted on Friday night, and the internet exploded in angry criticism of her 'inappropriate' and 'racist' sentiments. The company she worked for, IAC (an internet i) has reacted to this unwanted publicity by firing her, stating that her tweet does not reflect the company's philosophy.
“The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question,” a spokesperson for IAC said on Saturday.
Sacco went off the internet grid, giving Twitter users enough time to react to her offensive tweet. They even created a #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag which trended heavily as user after user aired their grievances against her tweet via the hashtag. The social media fire burst into full conflagration as several media houses took on the story and added their spin on things.
As soon as she arrived South Africa, Justine Sacco deleted her Twitter account, but she was spotted by a local Twitter user in Cape Town who took a photo of her and shared it on Twitter.
Justine Sacco then created a new Twitter account (@JustineSacco6) to post apologies for her tweet, but the general reaction was that she felt no actual remorse but was trying to get her job back.
The underlying question here is: why Africa? Why does this always happen to Africa? There are several people who, for example, do not know that Africa is a continent, and not a country.
And - why do people often equate Africa to HIV/AIDS? Are we the victims of bad PR or is there some underlying truth in these slanderous 'banter' and 'jokes'?
No comments:
Post a Comment