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Justine Sacco's AIDS Tweet Controversy
Confirmed 101,131
Part of a series on Twitter / X. [View Related Entries]
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Background
On December 20th, 2013, at 10:19 a.m., InterActiveCorp (IAC) PR executive Justine Sacco[1] tweeted an insensitive joke about AIDS shortly before boarding her flight from London, UK to Cape May, South Africa.
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Notable Developments
Throughout the day, the tweet quickly spread beyond her network of hundreds of followers, leading to news articles on Valleywag[2], BuzzFeed[3], Cheezburger[4], The Daily Dot[7], CNN[9] and International Business Times[10], among many others.[6][8] Within the first 36 hours, Sacco's tweet received nearly 51,000 replies[11] and led to the creation of several fake Twitter account.[13] In addition, JustineSacco.com[12] was registered as a mirror domain to the HIV/AIDS charity Aid For Africa website.
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IAC Statement
That evening, IAC issued a statement denouncing her tweet as an "outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC" and relieved her from the executive position.
#HasJustineLandedYet
Meanwhile, many spectators on Twitter began anticipating Sacco's reaction as her approximately 11-hour long flight came to an end, which resulted in the hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet[5] to trend globally for hours, with more than 98,000 mentions, according to Topsy analytics.[11] By 11:55 p.m., Justine had deleted her account.
External References
[1] Twitter – @JustineSacco (unavailable)
[2] Valleywag – And Now a Funny Joke from IAC's PR Boss
[3] BuzzFeed – Internet Erupts After PR Woman For Media Firm Tweets A “Joke” About Getting AIDS In Africa
[4] Cheezburger – Five Things You Need To Know About Justine Sacco's Twitter Fail
[5] Twitter – Search results for #HasJustineLandedYet
[6] LA Times – PR executive Justine Sacco fired after insensitive tweet goes global
[7] The Daily Dot – Twitter mob greets Justine Sacco in Africa after racist tweet
[8] AdWeek – IAC's PR Chief Apparently Tweeted a Bizarrely Tasteless Joke About AIDS and Africa
[9] CNN – Company parts ways with PR exec after AIDS in Africa tweet
[10] International Business Times – Justine Sacco Twitter Revolt: Fierce Blowback After AIDS-Africa Tweet Sent From IAC Exec’s Account
[11] Topsy – Social analytics for #HasJustineLandedYet
[12] JustineSacco.com (via Wayback Machine) – Not Associated with AIDS For Africa, But You Should Be
[13] Twitter – @LolJustineSacco's Tweets (suspended)
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