Humor should be restricted to a certain class of people and handled with care. Especially on social networks. The last to be made in the cost is the communication manager of a large U.S. media group, fired after tweeted a racist joke.
Do you remember that American animator, crazy about hunting who sparked controversy by publishing on social networks photos representing her hunting trophies. Two world petitions had been launched against her.
Today is another American who is talking about her. Up there a few days, Justice Sacco was responsible communication of InterActiveCorp (IAC), a large group of American media (The Daily Beast, Excite, Vimeo).
Friday, December 20, before taking the plane to Cape Town in South Africa where she went on a family vacation (she is the daughter of a South African mining magnate), she tweet this message from the Heathrow airport (which will make some people say that her phone may have been hacked)
« Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white! »
She cuts her phone and left for a flight of 11 hours, far from imagining what her tweet is being caused. Despite his 200 followers, her tweet goes around the world, prompting strong reactions, not to say a digital lynching. Realizing that she is in flight and therefore unable to look at her notifications. A trending hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet and parody account @LOLJustineSacco quickly appeared on Twitter after Sacco sent the tweet. The Buzzfeed website stands a compilation of her most tendentious tweets. A fake Facebook account under her name was also created, where a post links to http://www.justinesacco.com, which brings up a donation page against AIDS for Aid for Africa.
A trending hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet and parody account @LOLJustineSacco quickly appeared on Twitter after Sacco sent the tweet. A fake Facebook account under her name was also created, where a post links to http://www.justinesacco.com, which brings up a donation page for Aid for Africa.
Upon arrival in South Africa, the young woman taking the measure of the ongoing controversy. She deletes the tweet in question and finally her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts shortly after. Unfortunately for her, things have gone too far and seem irreversible because meanwhile the direction of IAC issued a statement in which they severely distance their employee, (InterActive Corp issued a statement on Saturday distancing itself from the tweet and saying the employee was fired.) accoring to the NYT about her tweet “offensive and hurtful” that “do not reflect values and points of view” of IAC adding that there is “no excuse for hate speech that were made and we unequivocally condemn.” However, they hope that this will not give rise to the conviction of a person who has always been” decent”. However, later, any reference to Justice Sacco will be deleted from the site and its dismissal announced by the company on Saturday afternoon.
InterActive Corp issued a statement to ABC News Saturday distancing itself from the tweet and saying the employee was fired.
“There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally,” the InterActive Corp statement said. “We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.”
On Sunday, the young woman tries public apology in a statement transcribed by ABC News:
“Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due to a needless and careless tweet,” Sacco said. “There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.
“For being insensitive to this crisis — which does not discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all uniformly — and to the millions of people living with the virus, I am ashamed.
“This is my father’s country, and I was born here. I cherish my ties to South Africa and my frequent visits, but I am in anguish knowing that my remarks have caused pain to so many people here; my family, friends and fellow South Africans. I am very sorry for the pain I caused.”
These days of digital fury have puzzled numbers of users and observers, including Slate , questioning the role of social networks that are at the pinnacle of certain persons for unknown reasons and engage others to condemnation and court popular.
For more, head to our Facebook page and throw us a like or follow us on Twitter or add us to your circle in Google + and also follow us on Instagram, so that you won’t miss out any breaking news.
