IAC PR Director Lands in South Africa After Racist Tweet, and It's a Mess
This post originally appeared in Business Insider.
After her offensive tweet about AIDS and race went viral while she was on a flight, people have been waiting for IAC PR director Justine Sacco to land, making "#HasJustineLandedYet" the most popular trending topic on Twitter. IAC is an Internet company that owns sites like CollegeHumor, Match.com, The Daily Beast, OkCupid, and Vimeo.
Here's the original tweet, first highlighted by Valleywag.
After she finally did land, she rapidly deleted her account.
Twitter user @Zac_R says he was there as Justine landed and spoke to her father. Like many others, he figured that there was a chance that it was a hoax or that she had been hacked, but tweeted that "her reaction & behavior told me she's sorry she was caught."
He's not a reporter but was apparently on his first day of vacation, nearby, and wanted to see if the tweet was real.
Here's who he believes is Justine arriving at the airport.
Justine and her sister / friend. She's on the phone to someone. "No! I really didn't think it would!" She said. pic.twitter.com/HAMxdquPOG
-- Zac (@Zac_R) December 21, 2013When she stepped out into the greeting area. Her sister/friend greeted her with "Don't worry. It'll blow over soon" #HasJustineLandedYet
-- Zac (@Zac_R) December 21, 2013He also says spoke to Justine's father.
Just had a chat to @JustineSacco's father. He's South African. He didn't want to raise her in South Africa because of racism.
-- Zac (@Zac_R) December 21, 2013Justine's dad is apologeti & basically in tears."I decided to raise her in the US. SA was too racist". Oh, the irony! #HasJustineLandedYet
-- Zac (@Zac_R) December 21, 2013There's been no further reaction from her employer IAC since its comments to Valleywag yesterday:
"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."
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