NASA Internship Twitter Controversy

Confirmed 106,323

Overview

NASA Internship Twitter Controversy refers to an incident in which Twitter user @NaomiH_Official reportedly lost an internship with NASA after telling former NASA engineer Homer Hickam, a National Space Council member, "suck my dick and balls" on Twitter.

Background

On August 14th, 2018, Twitter user @NaomiH_Official tweeted the message "Everyone shut the fuck up / I got accepted for a NASA internship," to which Hickam replied "Language." After @NoamiH_Official replied with "Suck my dick and balls I'm working at NASA," Hickam informed her that he is "on the National Space Council that oversees NASA" (shown below). The tweets have since been removed.

Developments

Online Reactions

On August 20th, Twitter user @Saphykitten^[6] posted a tweet claiming that @NaomiH_Official "lost her internship" and "delete her Twitter" (shown below).

On August 21st, Twitter user @CaitlinNyaa^[5] posted a screenshot of the Twitter exchange along with the message "A furry became an intern for NASA and got instantly fired after telling someone on their council to suck their dick because this is 2018." Over the next week, the tweet recieved upwards of 93,900 likes and 33,000 retweets. The same day, a post about the Twitter controversy was posted to the Encyclopedia Dramatica Forums.^[7] Also on August 21st, Hickam published a blog post addressing the incident on his personal blog, noting that "after talking to her, I am certain she deserves a position in the aerospace industry" and that he was working to "secure her one that will be better than she lost" (shown below).^[8]

Meanwhile, the Twitter exchange reached the front page of /r/instantkarma. On August 23rd, Twitter user @stillgray tweeted that Hickam "deactivated his Twitter after a sustained harassment campaign" and that he "deleted his blog defending the furry" (shown below).