Justine Sacco: PR exec fired over racist tweets

Shortly before boarding a flight to South Africa, Justine Sacco tweeted, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding, I’m white!”

Her racist and grossly inappropriate comment lit up Twitter and The Internet in no time, with #HasJustineLandedYet becoming the top treading topic on Twitter.

IAC has sought to distance itself from Sacco, releasing the following 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.”

If you don’t recognize the IAC name, likely you’re familiar with the companies it owns. According to Ad Week, IAC controls Match.com, Vimeo, CollegeHumor, and many others.

Other brilliant and insightful tweets from Sacco include:

“I can’t be fired for things i say while intoxicated right?”

and also

“I had a sex dream about an autistic kid last night.”

Since her AIDS related tweet first came to light, her twitter account has been closed.