via NY Daily News:
It’s sounding more like OK Stupid. The communications director for media conglomerate IAC, which represents brands like OkCupid, is in boiling water after publicly tweeting a racist joke that’s getting few, if any, laughs.“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” Justine Sacco tweeted Friday.
Sacco, whose represented brands also include Vimeo and College Humor, was not immediately available for comment. But her boss was.
“This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC,” the company, operated by billionaire media executive Barry Diller, said in a statement to The News.
“Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”
What that appropriate action may be for the public relations head, who describes herself as a “troublemaker on the side” on her Twitter account, may not be known until she lands.
Meanwhile public outrage over what was dubbed the “worst tweet of year” was seen piling high, with one vengeful Twitter user publishing her cell phone number online.
“She gon get that message I left,” Twitter user 070180 wrote after snagging the digits.
When asked by another user what that message was, he replied: “That from this day forward she will never feel comfortable around us. Because of her actions. Not ours.”
Twitter users have posted thousands of comments about the message. Some called the message racist and insensitive. Others defended it as an unsuccessful yet forgivable attempt at humor.
Many users wondered – some angrily, others gleefully – whether Sacco would still have her job after her flight landed.
As it turned out, she didn’t.
IAC operates more than a dozen websites, including the news website the Daily Beast, CollegeHumor, and dating websites like Match.com and OKCupid.
The company distanced itself from the message.
“The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC,” the company said in a statement on Saturday. “We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question.”
“There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally,” the statement continued. “We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.”
There was no reply to an email sent to Sacco’s corporate email address, and she could not be otherwise reached for comment.
The post Dumbest Person of 2013: Public Relations Exec Loses Job After Tweeting ‘ Going to Africa, Hope I Don’t Catch Aids’ appeared first on Late Night Creep.