Justine Sacco Aftermath: Lessons from an Online Lynch Mob

Dec. 27, 2013 - PRLog -- MIAMI (Dec. 27, 2013) – On Friday, December 20th, Justine Sacco boarded a flight from London to South Africa and did what many people do before they board a flight- used Twitter. The problem is Sacco tweeted: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white.”

Many on Twitter were rightly offended, and started to attack her online while she was still mid-flight. Her employer disavowed her before her plane touched down. It’s quite possible that Sacco, who was indeed fired from her job as a senior director of corporate communications at InterActiveCorp, was sacked in mid-air – and hundreds of thousands of people knew about it before she did. Talk about a collision of old world technology and new world communications.

South Florida public relations expert John P. David believes there are some lessons to be learned from the whole saga. His blog post on the topic (miamiprblog.com) details the top takeaways for future social media use:

• Digital is fast and forever. Information can quickly spread across the globe and once it’s out there, it is out there forever.
• Social media users have to remain vigilant about what they post because there’s always a chance it could go wickedly wrong.
• Sometimes it’s best to leave the humor to the professionals. Especially when it comes to a topic as sensitive as AIDS.

“Had she written the same tweet but not been on a transcontinental flight sans Wi-Fi, I imagine the tale would be different,” said David in his blog. David, president of David PR Group, has counseled executives on public relations and crisis communications for more than 20 years.

“She could have quickly deleted the offending tweet before it went viral and perhaps salvaged her job. To her credit, Sacco later apologized. Regardless, there are lessons here.”

For more information about David PR Group, call 305-255-0035 or visit www.davidpr.com.

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