The Tweet Read 'Round the World: Justine Sacco.

If this story could have a theme song, my vote would go towards Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” because it best describes this entire situation. 

*cues music*

"It’s like a PR vet tweeting something racist….and isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?" LOL!

Meet Miss Justine Sacco, director of corporate communications at InterActiveCorp (or IAC, which is a company that owns Ask.com, OkayCupid, Match.com, and many other sites) tweeted something very unfortunate to her followers on Friday.



Now, through 3 months of job searching, I know that one needs at least 7-10+ years of experience in order to have a senior position in a company. I also know that social media is still kind of new, but what I seriously CAN NOT understand is why she:

A) Was using that account as a personal account.

B) Thought being white made her exempt from getting AIDS.

C) Hadn’t been caught sooner for her other questionable tweets.

I could be wrong but I don’t think Twitter is a place a senior PR pro working for a company should have a personal PUBLIC account. Because Justine didn’t find her tweet offensive enough to delete, by the time she was on her flight to South Africa the world was in an uproar on Twitter.

It’s like I was watching the Truman Show. but this incident was a real version of that movie— just knowing that a person’s life has changed except for them was really unbelievable.

IAC, of course, was not here for any of what Justine said and issued a statement saying they would “handle the issue appropriately.”

So while the world waited, #HasJustineLandedYet was born. GlobalGrind put together some of the best of those tweets, and a few of my favs are below.





In all of that madness, Twitter users also discovered Sacco’s name was removed from the IAC’s company website, suggesting that she had been fired. Then a non-profit org, AID for Africa, bought JustineSacco.com and redirected it to their page. Talk about seizing the moment!

Shortly after that, we found out that Justine had in fact landed, and the highly offensive tweet was deleted, along with the rest of her Twitter account, Instagram and Facebook.

Twitter user @Zac_R live tweeted the event and was even able to talk with Sacco’s father, ” I’m so incredibly ashamed of her”, he says. By Saturday, IAC announced they had “parted ways with the employee in question”. WOMP! After losing her job, and trying to save face I presume, Justine also issued an apology.

Words can not 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.  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.

Good luck with finding a new job, girl! Lol. Remember to be careful about what you say on the internet, because

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