The #JustineSacco case today reminded me of the Information Ethics lectures I took in the graduate school.
Who is Justine Sacco anyway ? While I leave it on to you and google for her background check, it is fair to say she represents a big institution. And this fact has worked against her in today’s case.
Just before the lady boarded her flight to South Africa today, she tweeted this.
That came from a senior PR executive of a company that owns Dictionary.Com, Match.Com, and many more. While she remained in bliss for the next 11 hours thousands of feet up in the sky, probably with some red wine in a business-class seat, the cyber-world below went turbulent.
She trended worldwide : #HasJustineLandedYet
Ms Sacco’s tweet came, most probably, out of light humor. But not many were amused. She now has her Twitter account suspended. She has offended millions of people. And her career could be in question.
Definitely, the information you send in Facebook and Twitter does not necessarily reach the receiver the way you want it to. People are people after all – they have their own ways of interpreting your message.
A few months back, a professor of my own university found himself in disgrace after repetitively firing offensive tweets.
マー君は、神である。逆らうものは、地獄に落ちろ！
— 沼崎一郎 (@Ichy_Numa) October 17, 2013
バカども、吠えろ！
— 沼崎一郎 (@Ichy_Numa) October 17, 2013
The professor eventually tweeted an apology. That came only in the next morning after visiting his furious bosses. Meanwhile, he did not forget to blame alcohol for his actions.
昨夜は、深酔いしていましたが、一夜明けて改めて自身のツイートを見直し、自身の行為を恥ずかしく思っております。誠に申し訳ありませんでした。
— 沼崎一郎 (@Ichy_Numa) October 18, 2013
Next is a case of Mr Prakash Dahal. This is a screen capture of his Facebook statuses before and during the vote-counting of the recent election. See the contradiction. He should be thanking the lord for filling Nepalis with merciful DNAs. 🙂
Moral of the story : use the social media to the full. But be careful of the consequences your actions may invite. Go through your post for one last time before clicking Post/Enter/Reply buttons. You may be about to make a fool of yourself. Your reputation and career may be at risk.
In the age of social media, ethics is critical.
Picture sources :
Completely agree!!
“Definitely, the information you send in Facebook and Twitter does not necessarily reach the receiver the way you want it to. People are people after all – they have their own ways of interpreting your message. “