Justine Sacco AIDS tweet

Justine Sacco AIDS tweet

A communications director for a large digital holding company will probably be out of a job when her flight lands in Africa. Of course, her excuse will be that her Twitter account was hacked.

Update: Justine Sacco finally landed in Johannesburg, and deleted her Twitter account.

Adweek.com:

If Justine Sacco is on a flight to Africa right now, I don’t envy her the notifications that will be waiting for her when she lands.

Sacco, senior director of corporate communications at the massive digital holding company IAC, apparently tweeted the following earlier today: “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”

The tweet has since attracted scorn and disbelief from Silicon Valley and far beyond. IAC is no small player in the digital realm. The company owns many popular websites, including About.com, Match.com, Vimeo, CollegeHumor, OkCupid and Urbanspoon.

A rep for IAC tells Valleywag: “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.” Original item below:

If Justine Sacco is on a flight to Africa right now, I don’t envy her the notifications that will be waiting for her when she lands.

Thanks to loyal reader E. Ortiz for the tip.

Update: Some backlash on Twitter.

Justine Sacco AIDS tweet

Justine Sacco AIDS tweet