Very funny/cool AIDS/Africa joke from IAC’s head of corporate communications, great work http://t.co/k7xfwITlIn
Pazartesi, Aralık 23, 2013
http://www.buzzfeed.com/alisonvingiano/this-is-how-a-womans-offensive-tweet-became-the-worlds-top-s
At 10:19 a.m EST. Friday, Justine Sacco, a PR director at InterActiveCorp (IAC), posted this tweet shortly before an 11 hour flight from London to Cape Town, South Africa.
She only had about 200 followers, but someone emailed it to Valleywag editor Sam Biddle, who told BuzzFeed. He published a brief item about three hours after it was sent.
He tweeted it at 1:30, to immediate notice of other reporters on a slow Friday afternoon. (The Duck Dynasty story had quieted down.)
The tweet has been up for 3 hr (?) rt @stevekovach Whooo boyhttp://t.co/Jijfd7cVE9
Other members of the media (including BuzzFeed staffers) took notice, and began interacting with Sacco’s Twitter account directly.
Is that tweet real? You work in PR. You shld know better RT@JustineSacco "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"
As the story began to circulate, many Twitter users were at first flummoxed.
This lady is not very good at twitter dot com (ht @EvelynRusli)http://t.co/bocX18iaC8
Yes, but you're also clearly stupid. “@JustineSacco: Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!”
And it didn’t take long before confusion turned to anger.
Justine Sacco should get fired....and get AIDS
Really has no words for that horribly disgusting, racist as fuck tweet from Justine Sacco. I am beyond horrified.
Someone plz kick Justine Sacco out of Africa. She is such a bitch mxm...a selo
Justine Sacco. You racist ass bitch.
Oh. Hell. No. Did this Justine Sacco person just say that? Did she really fix her keyboard to type that mess? Whyyyyyyyy? You racist bitch!
I'm actually kind of hoping Justine Sacco gets aids? lol
Some people thought her account was hacked, a theory that lost ground after other insensitive tweetswere found, and IAC made a public comment.
Account hack or another stupid tweet from a PR exec? Blowback After IAC Exec’s @JustineSacco's AIDS-Africa Tweethttp://t.co/OH9yfxRF4h
IAC just contacted me with this comment, which suggests@justinesacco wasn’t hacked http://t.co/ZOjzHXSo2d
More sites picked up the twitterstorm, includingBusiness Insider and BuzzFeed.
I remember when you could be utterly stupid without the whole world finding out http://t.co/ziCIJFndBg
Justine Sacco began trending in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Just before 5:30, a woman in Miami started the hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet.
Soon it was trending worldwide.
Some stats on who's talking about #JustineSacco and#HasJustineLandedYet. Hint, the whole world.
The whole world waited for one person’s plane to land so she could get back online and respond to her critics.
#HasJustineLandedYet shows up at this time as Trend in Worldwide
The firestorm was fueled in part by the fact that Sacco, who was on a flight without wifi, couldn’t get online to apologize or delete her tweet. Comedian Steve Martin shared an offensive tweet the same evening — but quickly deleted and apologized.
I did apologize. But again, a second later I realized what an offensive thing I'd done. Deep bow. @JustCindeh
But Sacco was still in the air and offline — and unable to delete the tiny piece of media that had become Twitter’s obsession.
I don't think America has watched a landing this closely since Apollo 13 re-entered the earth's atmosphere in 1970. #HasJustineLandedYet
New reality show — first one to contact @justinesacco and get a comment after she lands wins: http://t.co/Gq8BrfRD8p
I'm really busy tracking the flight of a woman on Twitter who made a racist joke so no, I can't come to your party. #HasJustineLandedYet
Wldnt this has Justine landed yet thing be more credible if it weren't 2013 and all planes have Internet?
Famous twitter users and brands started tweeting about it…
“@alvaromano: Olivia Pope: "Gurl, you're on your own with this one"#HasJustineLandedYet ” LOL
Hey Justine, Maybe Paula Deen is looking for a communications director. #HasJustineLandedYet
Including Gogo, a company that supplies wireless Internet on flights. They later apologized for the tweet.
Next time you plan to tweet something stupid before you take off, make sure you are getting on a @Gogo flight! CC: @JustineSacco
While everyone waited for Sacco to respond, plenty of photoshopped jokes began to pop up.
Where were you when @JustineSacco landed? Second photo released, well done @reddit ! #HasJustineLandedYet
*slow clap* RT @joepatrick15: Ok, trying not to feed into this...but found this hilarious #HasJustineLandedYet
Internet processes things quickly--like faster than your flight.#HasJustineLandedYet
AIDS organizations used the opportunity to plug their work.
Learn more about the fight to reach the Beginning of the End of AIDS:http://t.co/qWWr375dqu #HasJustineLandedYet
I like the effort by Aid to Africa etc to channel Justine rage to donations, eg http://t.co/QAqBY1HDGK and http://t.co/txraptq5Xk
The @AidforAfrica site crashed due to traffic overload. When it comes back up, consider a donation. Do it for Justine!#HasJustineLandedYet
AID for Africa even bought www.justinesacco.comand redirected it to fundraising page.
Go to http://t.co/ZWY20ClrDv and donate to Aid for Africa. A coalition of 80+ orgs helping communities in Africa. #HasJustineLandedYet
Scores of fake Twitter and Facebook accounts were created under Justine Sacco’s name.
For those of you who think you're actually retweeting Justine Sacco:#hasjustinelandedyet
When Sacco’s plane landed about 11:20 p.m. ET, she deleted the tweet and her Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts without offering an apology.
#HasJustinelandedYet yep & she deleted her entire account. Must be shocking to find the internet threw you a surprise going away party.
The story dominated the media, and was covered byThe New York Times, CNN, ABC, BCC, and more.
Sacco was getting more attention than a major celebrity.
congrats on this major accomplishment re: #HasJustineLandedYet, Twitter:
But while no one person could claim responsibility for turning Biddle’s blog item into a storm, Twitter users began to express discomfort with how quickly the situation escalated. Wifi provider “GoGo” offered Sacco a direct apology.
@JustineSacco,apologize for response to your tweet.Right or wrong,It’s not our policy to engage on these subjects.We clearly need a review.
I actually feel bad for @justinesacco she's going to be under massive assault once she lands. What the hell was she thinking?
I actually feel sort of bad for Justine Sacco. That's pretty much the worst way for an international flight to end, outside of crashing.
Biddle was not among those wringing their hands.
No one cares that I was first but I will know I united black and white twitters. Welcome to post-racial twitter, you're welcome, god bless
The conservative backlash got underway.
"Justine Sacco was the victim of a witch hunt. She was the target of a liberal media campaign to limit Freedom of Speech in America"
@JustineSacco Sorry that this mob of moralistic jackasses is trying to destroy your life over a tweet.
Is “Saccoing” an accepted term yet for ginning up an online lynch mob? #soon
The story also spread to pilots.
o god pilot on our flight just told us we had a time to send last minute text or tweet before takeoff but to remember to 'be careful, kids'
#HasJustineLandedYet was still trending Saturday afternoon.
Since her tweet blew up, her name was tweeted more than 30,000 times, and the hashtag almost 100,000.
On Saturday, IAC announced that it had “parted ways” with Sacco, but asked that she not herself be condemned.
The company wrote in a statement:
UPDATE: Dec. 22, 8:51 a.m., ET: Justine Sacco issued an apology, first to a South African newspaper and then to ABC News.
“My greatest concern was this statement reach South Africa first,” Sacco said, after sending her statement to South African newspaper The Star, Sacco shared the follow apology with ABC:
“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 in the statement. “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.”