Justine Sacco, the public relations director of digital holding company IAC, that owns the popular websites About.com, Match.com and Vimeo, found herself in the middle of an angry Twitter campaign after tweeting a racist comment before boarding a flight to Africa.
"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!" Sacco tweeted before boarding her flight. She switched off her phone after that. The tweet was wildly circulated on social forums and soon the hash tag #HasJustineLandedYet was trending worldwide.
Her comment was met with disbelief, scorn and rage across the world. It was picked up by media outlets including Mashable and prompted the IAC to come out with a statement.
"This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC. Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action," the IAC said.
The tweet was later taken off and soon after her Twitter and Facebook account were deleted. Twitter users pointed out that Sacco has a history of controversial tweets and had earlier tweeted "I can't be fired for things I say while intoxicated right?"
The message was posted from London and triggered speculation that Sacco's account may have been compromised. In February 2012, she tweeted "I had a sex dream about an autistic kid last night. #fml"
Here's how the story unfolded.
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