Woman offends the entire continent of Africa with a Tweet, Twitter gets on the case

[MrScorpio]

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23HasJustineLandedYet&src=hash

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23HasJustineLandedYet&src=hash&mode=photos

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/justine-sacco-tweet-iac-aids-africa_n_4482502.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

[NYC_SKP]

1. "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" Justine Sacco

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" Justine Sacco, IAC's Director of Corporate Communications tweeted out Friday ...

She's like head of PR/Communications.

Good fucking grief.

[MrScorpio]

2. WAS like head of PR/Comm

They fired her ass.

[Arcanetrance]

8. How does someone who does pr and communications for a living manage to post something so stupid

[NYC_SKP]

9. Often, it's their "charm", youth, and good looks.

But if they don't have a brain and a heart, they don't last very long.

[Recursion]

11. I'll hold out hope she was hacked

Because, otherwise... yeah. IAC needs to rethink it's hiring process.

[Arcanetrance]

12. Yeah and I guess if all else fails never underestimate the ability of humans to do the dumbest

things. On a side note I love your photos of India I've had a want to go there for awhile now I'm hoping now that I've paid off my school debt I can save up the money to go see it

[CJCRANE]

22. Also some people think twitter/facebook is a chance to vent their interior monologue...

It's a strange thing but some people use social media to post every little brainfart that pops up.

That's why I left facebook: I don't need to know what my acquaintances are thinking and doing when I'm not with them.

I lost a lot of respect for some of them just based on their postings. Stuff that pre-facebook I wouldn't know or need to know about.

[Electric Monk]

3. "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

[alp227]

30. Ryan White would beg to differ. Or Rock Hudson.

Or Greg Lougains. All white Americans who are HIV positive. And people say liberal arts education isn't important?

[Ken Burch]

4. Noticed there was a response tweet from Kerry Washington...

Anybody think Olivia Pope could get Justine out of this mess?

[Tx4obama]

5. Article on the link below

Here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/justine-sacco-tweet-iac-aids-africa_n_4482502.html

[Pretzel_Warrior]

6. I hope nothing happens to her. it's stupid people are stalking her flight.

no matter if her comments were offensive.

[Ken Burch]

13. Airport security will probably make sure she just gets on a flight straight back to London

(after all, now that she's unemployed, she has no reason to STAY in South Africa).

The South African authorities must realize that any harm that came to her would just be ammo to the white-supremacist types who are STILL trying to delegitimize majority rule in the country.

[rusty fender]

17. Her father is a South African billionaire

So she has a reason to visit.

[Ken Burch]

28. And even LESS reason to have tweeted what she did.

(I'd thought it was a business trip).

Daddy probably has tons of security people...his class always does...and I don't think anybody would actually do her physical harm over this.

[geomon666]

7. I hope she's fired before the plane lands. n/t

[Recursion]

10. Wow, I hope she was hacked

Oy

[Ken Burch]

14. Well, she didn't claim to have been when she apologized.

It is the sort of thing that a rival who was desperate for her job might cause to happen to her(hacking, that is).

[CJCRANE]

15. She opened a new account and apologized profusely here:

https://twitter.com/JustineSacco6

This is an interesting study in how these days an offhand comment can fly around the world and change your life forever. And also how the narcissism of social media allows people to unwittingly expose their prejudices.

I think the next generation will be much more careful about their online presense.

[blogslut]

16. that's a hoax account

[CJCRANE]

19. How do you know it's a hoax account? nt

[blogslut]

20. Well, before twitter shut it down

It was full of very bad joke tweets.

[CJCRANE]

21. Fair enough. I didn't see that. However...

when I read it, it appeared to be a genuine account of someone under a lot of pressure.

This raises another interesting issue: how do you know what is genuine and what is not in the twittersphere? And how do you know if someone is pretending their account has been hacked, in order to save face?

It's entirely possible that she was advised to make it look like a hoax account because she was just digging herself in deeper.

[blogslut]

23. Well, she wasn't famous enough to have a verified account

A good many celebrities have a blue check icon next to their name on their Twitter accounts:

https://twitter.com/stephenfry

As for this particular woman, it doesn't make sense that she would close her original Twitter account only to create another one with a user name that suggests there were five other Justine Saccos. I mean, come on @justinesacco6?

As for a claim of hacking, it happens but, usually to people who have the attention of a great number of people.

As for the possibility that someone advised that she create a hoax account, that's some very strange advice.

[CJCRANE]

24. I meant the advice was to claim it was a hoax, after the fact.

Also, if one of the posts above (in this thread) is correct, her father is a South African bilionaire, which would account for why she claimed her family had disowned her, and indicate that her family might be quite well-known in S Africa.

[blogslut]

25. I've seen the thing about her father being a South African billionaire

Now, mind you, despite this coming from the NYT, a person claims to have spoken to the woman's father and he's actually quite distraught:

Early Saturday morning on Twitter , @Zac_R said he saw Ms. Sacco after she landed at the airport in Cape Town, South Africa, and he posted pictures that appeared to be Ms. Sacco in sunglasses and chatting on a cellphone. @Zac_R said he spoke to the woman’s father, quoting him as saying he raised his daughter in the United States because of racism in South Africa. The account could not be independently confirmed.

Justine and her sister / friend. She’s on the phone to someone. “No! I really didn’t think it would!” She said. http://t.co/HAMxdquPOG

— Zac (@Zac_R) 21 Dec 13

Justine’s dad is apologeti & basically in tears.”I decided to raise her in the US. SA was too racist”. Oh, the irony! #HasJustineLandedYet

[CJCRANE]

26. It's a sad case all round. I hope it's resolved.

It shows the power of social media (whether the postings were genuine or not).

[RKP5637]

27. Yes, it does, and also often demonstrates the prevalence of blurbing out

comments without the brain first engaged. If she did this, with her position, one would think she would have engaged some thought about what she was saying.

[Shrike47]

18. So happy to hear white folks don't get AIDS.

The info is sadly late for a couple of people I used to know. They're dead now, in spite of their skin color.

[Ken Burch]

29. Same for some of MY white friends, too.

n/t.

[Jesus Malverde]

31. lulz..

[HipChick]

32. I don't think she meant any offense...

She's a white African herself, and has her daddy's money to fall back on...her twitter history shows what an arse she is

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024208555

[savalez]

33. Look what else she wrote:

And in a message posted 12 hours before that, she seemed to fume about a fellow passenger:

“Weird German Dude: You’re in first class. It’s 2014. Get some deodorant.” -Inner monologue as I inhale BO. Thank god for pharmaceuticals. “

And on February 24, 2012, she seemed to reveal the explicit contents of a recent dream:

“I had a sex dream about an autistic kid last night. #fml”

She sucks.

[undeterred]

34. I don't think she was hacked.

I got this as a retweet. You can be retweeted hundreds of times and if you say something offensive you will be. By that time you've got a problem, especially if you are posting under your real name.

[savalez]

35. Ha!

From a tweet I read:

That awkward moment when you touch down with more baggage than you took off with. — Mynhardt van Pletsen (@mynhardt)