"How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up My Life" - Justine Sacco Reveals How Racist Tweet Ruined Her Life

A PR consultant has revealed how a tweet she sent to amuse her 170 followers ended up making her a global hate figure and ruined her life. Justine Sacco's ill-thought-out message, sent before she boarded a flight to South Africa in December 2013 read: 'Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!'

It cost the 30-year-old her job as the senior director of corporate communications at IAC and her reputation after it was re-tweeted by tech blogger Sam Biddle to his 15,000 followers.

With her phone turned off during her 11-hour flight, Justine had no idea of the furore her tweet had caused or that people were now baying for her blood. Unknown to her, her employers responded with the statement: 'This is an outrageous, offensive comment. Employee in question currently unreachable on an into flight.'

Now more than a year on, Justine has spoken of the negative impact the incident has had on her life and how she never intended the tweet to be taken literally.  Below is what she told Jon Ronson in an interview for his latest book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed"

'Only an insane person would think that white people don't get AIDS. I thought there was no way that anyone could possibly think it was literal. Unfortunately, I am not a character on ‘South Park’ or a comedian, so I had no business commenting on the epidemic in such a politically incorrect manner on a public platform.  

'To put it simply, I wasn't trying to raise awareness of AIDS or p*** off the world or ruin my life. Living in America puts us in a bit of a bubble when it comes to what is going on in the third world. I was making fun of that bubble.' 

'As time passed, I watched these shame campaigns multiply, to the point that they targeted not just powerful institutions and public figures but really anyone perceived to have done something offensive.
'I also began to marvel at the disconnect between the severity of the crime and the gleeful savagery of the punishment. It almost felt as if shamings were now happening for their own sake, as if they were following a script.' 

'I cried out my body weight in the first 24 hours. It was incredibly traumatic. You don't sleep. You wake up in the middle of the night forgetting where you are.'
'I had a great career, and I loved my job, and it was taken away from me,and there was a lot of glory in that. Everybody else was very happy about that. I'm single; so it's not like I can date, because we Google everyone we might date. That's been taken away from me too.'

Jon Ronson's book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" will be published by Picador on 12th March

Credits: NY Times | DailyMail