NYTimes: "How one stupid tweet blew up Sacco's Life"

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Cybit said:
That is the best comparison I've ever heard for twitter so far. Holy cow. That's fantastic.



Yep. There are even people in this thread who I'm pretty sure could get the internet hate mob dropped on them in a heartbeat who are defending said mob.

Its funny how everyone is like "I have no sympathy for racists!" Pretty sure everyone here has close family or friends who are hella, hella racist. Ditto for sexist.
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They don't even have to be racist. They just need to say something that can be read as such, and that's apparently total justification for ruining their lives.

In a way, it makes sense I guess. For Twitter activism to be relevant, words have to be important; and not just important, but paramount, even to the point of surpassing action. So why wouldn't they feel justified in stringing somebody up over a tweet?
 
Damn that was a damn good read.

Having read the whole thing I gotta say, I can't fel too bad about what happened to Richards. There's a difference between a woman making a bad attempt at humor in a public social networking site, and a guy whispering a joke to his buddy and getting his life ruined because somebody decided to use social media justice and publicly show who he is.

Yeah the death threats were entirely too far, but her getting fired after she got him fired? I can't feel too bad for that. I know it's a shitty mentality and I'm ashamed. But I can't help it in this particular instance.


Also that Gawker guy sounds like an asshole. Whatever happened to him?
 
Why is the onus on her to take into account every human beings on earths potential understanding as a joke rather than people being a bit less quick to judge?

I find a lot of the people saying "she should have know" "you don't tweet this kinda stuff" to miss the point that its next to impossible to gauge a reaction to a tweet (or a post on GAF) A person only has limited experiences and while there are obvious no-nos the idea that someone should think before they tweet is going to end up in practice becoming "don't tweet"

The problem is the lack of self-reflection and ability to step back and realize your first response might not be right.

A personal note

I posted in a vaccine thread in response to a bish comment about anti-vaxxers dying out because they get the disease with a picture of Oprah and a comment about racists . I knew I was refering to the comments she had made about racists not chaning their views and progress coming from their eventual deaths. Bish didn't have that reference come to mind and my post came off possibly sounding racists or just crazy (I can't read bish's mind). Bish could have easily banned me right then an there (the #hasjustinelanded response) but instead asked for clarification. I explained the joke and he realized there was nothing wrong with it, I was just echoing his point with a reference to another horrible viewpoint.

I just think people should take a step back for a few minutes (biddle could have waiting to ask the women what she ment or looked up who she was beyond her linkedin) and if it does end up being a racist tweet, let the hashtags flow
 
Cybit said:
That is the best comparison I've ever heard for twitter so far. Holy cow. That's fantastic.



Yep. There are even people in this thread who I'm pretty sure could get the internet hate mob dropped on them in a heartbeat who are defending said mob.

Its funny how everyone is like "I have no sympathy for racists!" Pretty sure everyone here has close family or friends who are hella, hella racist. Ditto for sexist.
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Id wager many are racist or sexist themselves deep down in one way or another. Its not like they'd admit it here.
 
MMaRsu said:
What the fuck? Not that is an overreaction. I can't speak to the joke but if it was said privately this woman was out of line imo.
'
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Iirc the woman was a feminist blogger that worked in the tech industry. I remember quite w thread in gaf off topic when this woman's tweet got him fired
 
On the one hand, it seems like a lot of this is people overreacting to what are clearly jokes.

On the other, if you're gonna try and be funny, you'd better fucking know your audience. And if you don't keep your shit private, that audience is the whole world.
 
APKmetsfan said:
Why is the onus on her to take into account every human beings on earths potential understanding as a joke rather than people being a bit less quick to judge?

I find a lot of the people saying "she should have know" "you don't tweet this kinda stuff" to miss the point that its next to impossible to gauge a reaction to a tweet (or a post on GAF) A person only has limited experiences and while there are obvious no-nos the idea that someone should think before they tweet is going to end up in practice becoming "don't tweet"

The problem is the lack of self-reflection and ability to step back and realize your first response might not be right.

A personal note

I posted in a vaccine thread in response to a bish comment about anti-vaxxers dying out because they get the disease with a picture of Oprah and a comment about racists . I knew I was refering to the comments she had made about racists not chaning their views and progress coming from their eventual deaths. Bish didn't have the come to mind and my post came off possibly sounding racists or just crazy (I can't read bish's mind). Bish could have easily banned me right then an there (the #hasjustinelanded response) but instead asked for clarification. I explained the joke and he realized there was nothing wrong with it, I was just echoing his point with a reference to another horrible viewpoint.

I just think people should take a step back for a few minutes (biddle could have waiting to ask the women what she ment or looked up who she was beyond her linkedin) and if it does end up being a racist tweet, let the hashtags flow
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Sacco had the same problem.
 
Collingwood said:
Id wager many are racist or sexist themselves deep down in one way or another. Its not like they'd admit it here.
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Ive honestly wanted to write about this or think of something about this, but a lot of these twitter mobsters grew up in a time where trolling was rampant and popular. These techniques they employ might be a reaction to them finding out they were monsters in their past and trying to right their wrongs, but at the end of the day, a lot of these people only know troll tactics.

Harassment and attacks like this should not be condoned in any way. You can disagree with people, but this kind of behavior is toxic and leads to people literally being hurt. And you can dehumanize them by calling them "racists", but racism sprouts from ignorance, and ignorance can be solved by teaching.
 
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
That's what she says now, of course.

I'm kind of surprised that these human interest news pieces still work on people. The Simpsons covered this nearly two decades ago.
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the profound racists who comes from a white south african family who supported the ANC and went to live in Ethiopia after she was called a racist.

do you know anything about her besides those 140 characters?

Slayven said:
Sacco had the same problem.
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Its impossible for someone to judge every single persons possible reaction. She thought it absurd anyone would respond that way because she seems to live with people that find that kind of view repulsive. Who would think that colbert is a racist for his chinese joke?

Its much easier for people seeing the tweet to not RT or join a mob.
 
APKmetsfan said:
Why is the onus on her to take into account every human beings on earths potential understanding as a joke rather than people being a bit less quick to judge?
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Oh for fucks sake.

You say stupid racist stuff in an open form in a very public way, that the chance you take. Why is the onus on the public to excuse her bullshit because she "Might" be making a joke. and a unfunny racist joke at that.

“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”
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Are you really trying to defend this?
 
Collingwood said:
Id wager many are racist or sexist themselves deep down in one way or another. Its not like they'd admit it here.
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I've been active in various social justice campaigns for about 15 or so years now; I've learned that the more passively vocal (IE, not actively participating in the protest or what have you, just verbal support / online support) someone is for extreme punishment, the more likely they are to have some terrible trait themselves. I remember meeting crazy, crazy pants level racist feminists on campus when we'd be protesting some crazy puritanical policy, and meeting super duuper sexist folks while working on disenfranchised voters.

It's always based on the level of punishment they want to dish out generally speaking. There are those who are active who want heavy handed punishment; but those are usually people who've suffered from the effects of the injustice for most of their lives - understandable they are angry.
 
The problem I have is that its so easy for people who type crap online to quickly type in "just kidding lol!" or "it was a parody of racists!"

People try that shit all the time here on GAF.

It doesn't save them.

Sarcasm is all but impossible to convey via text.

Pro tip: if you think a post you're gonna make might be taken the wrong way, why don't you do the mature thing and just not post at all?

Poodlestrike said:
I don't know how else to interpret the "no sympathy" brigade. An awful thing happened to her because of something she said. Either you think she deserved it, on the balance, and you have no sympathy, or you think they went too far, and you do.
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Fuck off with this Black and White "with me or against me" shit.
 
APKmetsfan said:
the profound racists who comes from a white south african family who supported the ANC and went to live in Ethiopia after she was called a racist.

do you know anything about her besides those 140 characters?
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Sounds like she should've been smarter and more experienced than to make such a stupid, racist tweet, then.
 
APKmetsfan said:
the profound racists who comes from a white south african family who supported the ANC and went to live in Ethiopia after she was called a racist.

do you know anything about her besides those 140 characters?
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He's too busy feeling self-righteously smug to care about the consequences of his beliefs. Duh.

The terrifying part is that no one seems to realize the potential consequences of this path. We are very close to a world where there is no privacy anyway (everyone carries HD video and audio recorders on them at all times); so...if we crucify folks for making a single mistake caught on camera or what not - all you're going to do is drive people to learn and do nothing. We learn through mistakes. We're going to tell everyone "nope, you can't ever make a mistake, otherwise you are forever and permanently assumed to be that mistake. Cheers!"

Freaking crazy.
 
googleplex said:
Oh for fucks sake.

You say stupid racist stuff in an open form in a very public way, that the chance you take. Why is the onus on the public to excuse her bullshit because she "Might" be making a joke. and a unfunny racist joke at that.



Are you really trying to defend this?
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SHE DESERVED IT BY GOING INTO PUBLIC ACTING LIKE THAT

sound familiar?
 
Poodlestrike said:
I don't know how else to interpret the "no sympathy" brigade. An awful thing happened to her because of something she said. Either you think she deserved it, on the balance, and you have no sympathy, or you think they went too far, and you do.
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It's more that it's frustrating how people are falling for this fluff piece. This reaction is the goal of human interest stories. Let's leave it at what it was: a racist tweet by a person who should have known better and got fired for it.

Jarate said:
SHE DESERVED IT BY GOING INTO PUBLIC ACTING LIKE THAT

sound familiar?
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Oy vey.

I mean, if any of us said something racist to the public, what would you expect would happen?
 
Sacco being fired is fine in of itself. The problem is that people were getting off on her suffering. The whole thing became less about getting justice, whatever the fuck that means in this context, and more about self righteousness on the part of the overreacting Twitter base.
 
A_Gorilla said:
The problem I have is that its so easy for people who type crap online to quickly type in "just kidding lol!" or "it was a parody of racists!"

People try that shit all the time here on GAF.

It doesn't save them.

Sarcasm is all but impossible to convey via text.

Pro tip: if you think a post you're gonna make might be taken the wrong way, why don't you do the mature thing and just not post at all?



Fuck off with this Black and White "with me or against me" shit.
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Am I wrong, or...? Isn't that how sympathy works? We see something bad happened to someone, and we sympathize, or we think we deserved it, and we don't. It's not a spectrum, here.

Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
It's more that it's frustrating how people are falling for this fluff piece. This reaction is the goal of human interest stories. Let's leave it at what it was: a racist tweet by a person who should have known better and got fired for it.

Oy vey.

I mean, if any of us said something racist to the public, what would you expect would happen?
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If all that happened was her employer saw her tweet, disapproved, and fired her, then that's... whatever. I don't think it's fine, but it's not the end of the world. But that is not what happened. She was harassed, and driven to depression. Is that okay? If not, then why the fuck are you condoning it?
 
Liu Kang Baking A Pie said:
It's more that it's frustrating how people are falling for this fluff piece. This reaction is the goal of human interest stories. Let's leave it at what it was: a racist tweet by a person who should have known better and got fired for it.
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So you're ok with her getting attacked

that's what this piece is about

She might deserve to get fired, but she doesnt deserve to get harassed and threatened. Which is what the article is talking about
 
googleplex said:
Oh for fucks sake.

You say stupid racist stuff in an open form in a very public way, that the chance you take. Why is the onus on the public to excuse her bullshit because she "Might" be making a joke. and a unfunny racist joke at that.



Are you really trying to defend this?
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Do you watch south park? Do you go in to the police/gay marriage threads where people sarcastically respond with the kinda of thing racists/homophobes say?

This is the same thing. Unless she is completely lying (which doesn't make sense considering her life).
 
Jarate said:
It's ok to harass someone into possible suicide because she might be racist! *Based off my own views of what racism is*
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You're putting an awful lot of words into my mouth, so for your sake I'll clarify:

She had a job title at IAC as "Director Of Communication". Her job sadly does include keeping an eye on her social networks so people like Sam Biddle don't turn her own words against her by a faceless mob.

She wholly deserved to be fired for the tasteless joke, not to have her life upended by faceless Internet vigilantes and shame her into nonexistence.

I empathize with the fact she made a mistake and that people like Sam Biddle are paid to take others down.

“The fact that she was a P.R. chief made it delicious,” he wrote. “It’s satisfying to be able to say, ‘O.K., let’s make a racist tweet by a senior IAC employee count this time.’ And it did. I’d do it again.” Biddle said he was surprised to see how quickly her life was upended, however. “I never wake up and hope I [get someone fired] that day — and certainly never hope to ruin anyone’s life.” Still, he ended his email by saying that he had a feeling she’d be “fine eventually, if not already.”

He added: “Everyone’s attention span is so short. They’ll be mad about something new today.”
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Because one look at his Twitter and this guy is an obvious fuckhead who's paid to spread gossip.

But I feel for the woman.

And the article was really spot on, especially with this line:

Social media is so perfectly designed to manipulate our desire for approval, and that is what led to her undoing. Her tormentors were instantly congratulated as they took Sacco down, bit by bit, and so they continued to do so. Their motivation was much the same as Sacco’s own — a bid for the attention of strangers — as she milled about Heathrow, hoping to amuse people she couldn’t see.
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People are so bored with their own vapid lives that they must tear down people who are easy targets.
 
bsod said:
We know she was bad at her job.
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how was she bad at her job? Nobody would have cared had someone not sent it to biddle, and biddle not been a dick and posted it without giving her time to respond (like journalists usually do)

a PR person's job is not to be in the public light, again, they are not celebrities. They just work in that field and advise others.
 
Jarmel said:
Sacco being fired is fine in of itself. The problem is that people were getting off on her suffering. The whole thing became less about getting justice, whatever the fuck that means in this context, and more about self righteousness on the part of the overreacting Twitter base.
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my other big problem with this whole thing is that the Gawker guy who exposed her almost sounded like he felt like he did this social justice thing and felt no remorse at making somebody the most hated person in the country (even possibly internationally) for a bit over a bad joke. He's looking for clicks.
 
Silexx said:
But that's not what this is really about though. It's about how disproportionate the "punishment" was to the transgression.
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That's the thing, you can't control this kind of punishment. It's the nature of society. You can't ever control how others will react. She tried to be stupidly funny and it blew up in her face, and her company let her go because of it. That's the end. Does it suck? For her, probably. Thems the breaks in life.
 
Her tweets being 'out of context' is really a reach, this wasn't near the knuckle brilliant satire, or mocking racism, there was just no thought put into them.

Just lazy stereotypes to spice up otherwise uninteresting tweets, and with the AIDS one she spectacularly over-reached.

Even her after the event explanation just amounts to "I didn't think", when as a director of communications with an account that is public she should have done.
 
Madness said:
That's the thing, you can't control this kind of punishment. It's the nature of society. You can't ever control how others will react. She tried to be stupidly funny and it blew up in her face, and her company let her go because of it. That's the end. Does it suck? For her, probably. Thems the breaks in life.
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You can't control how others will react, true. But should we be talking about this sort of mob "justice" as if it's any way acceptable?
 
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