Epic social media #FAILS of 2013
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PR exec tweets about AIDS and Africa
Justine Sacco, a senior communications director at online media conglomerate InterActiveCorp, or IAC, sparked a outrage on Twitter when she tweeted, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!’’ The Twitter account was later deleted, but not before the offensive tweet was circulated widely online. Following the ensuing firestorm, IAC, which owns several major websites such as Match.com, OKCupid.com, Dictionary.com, and About.com, quickly parted ways with Sacco, saying the tweet “does not reflect the views and values of the company.’’
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Martha Stewart’s strange food
The business mogul and domestic maven known for all things food, DIY, and home décor, left her loyal followers stunned and a little disgusted over her food pictures on Twitter. Like many social media users, Martha Stewart has catalogued her culinary creations and dining adventures, but the resulting images only resulted in bewilderment as many appeared unrecognizable. Stewart defended herself, calling the photos “beautiful.’’ You be the judge; here’s a roundup of the images.
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The Thanksgiving prank
On Thanksgiving day, Elan Gale, a TV producer on ABC’s “The Bachelor,’’ began live tweeting about a woman on his flight who became agitated and began complaining about their delayed flight. Gale eventually began sending passive-aggressive notes to the woman about her behavior and continued to document their back-and-forth on Twitter with pictures and posts. The exchanges became heated and explicit and ended with Gale getting slapped in the face. Thousands followed the tale on Twitter and the story went viral as it was picked up by various media outlets such as BuzzFeed, The Daily Mail, and The Huffington Post. But it turns out this epic note-battle that played out on Twitter was a hoax. Gale took to the social networking site a few days later to admit that he had made the whole thing up.
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Alec Baldwin’s Twitter tantrums
Alec Baldwin seemed to be quite an enigma on social media this year. He was on again and off again as he “quit’’ Twitter in between various rants and meltdowns. At one point, Baldwin took to Twitter to rail against American Airlines, after he was booted off a flight when he refused to turn off his cellphone. In one explosive incident he took to Twitter to blast a Daily Mail reporter with expletives and a gay slur after the writer reported that Baldwin’s wife was tweeting at the funeral for actor James Gandolfini. Following Baldwin’s anti-gay comments, his show “Up Late’’ was canceled by MSNBC. His antics also moved beyond social media as he was also accused of using racial epithets against a photographer.
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The Lion hunter
Melissa Bachman, a big-game hunter and TV presenter from Minnesota, sparked international outrage when she posted a picture of herself posing with a lion she had killed in South Africa on Twitter. The photo shows a smiling Bachman with a caption that read, “An incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion… what a hunt!’’ While lion hunting is legal in South Africa with permits, Bachman’s photo fueled debate about canned hunting and conservation. A Change.org petition was started calling on the government of South Africa to ban Bachman from the country. The petition received more than 450,000 signatures.
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@Natsecwonk
Jofi Joseph was fired from the White House after it surfaced that he was behind @natsecwonk, a Twitter account that mocked the Obama administration as well as various politicians, reporters, and colleagues. The Twitter account was later deleted, but the controversial tweets live on here, here, and here. Joseph, who was a national security official, apologized to those he insulted and said he started the feed as a “parody account.’’
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Bad girl, RiRi
Pop superstar Rihanna almost caused an international incident this year when she posted an Instagram photo of herself with a loris, an endangered animal, in Thailand. The singer tweeted the Instagram picture during a visit to the island of Phuket in between stops for her Diamonds World Tour. The photo sparked outrage from animal welfare groups and others. It is illegal to charge tourists to take photos with endangered species. Two men were later arrested in a raid and the Thai government said it would investigate the practice further.
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Kimye
Hip Hop star Kanye West and reality TV celebutante Kim Kardashian have had quite a year with their whilrwind romance, the birth of their daughter North West, and their pending nuptials. In fact, not a month seemed to go by when Kimye weren’t in the spotlight. But in an exchange on Instagram, the greatest couple of all time may have given us TMI (if that’s even possible for these two). After reportedly losing 25 pounds, Kardashian posted a sexy selfie on Instragram with the caption #NoFilter to which West replied, “HEADING HOME NOW.’’ While West was thrilled with the photo, many commenters were not so kind.
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Miss America backlash
When Nina Davuluri was crowned Miss America 2014 in September, her joyous moment was marred when Twitter exploded with racist tweets and hateful attacks against the 24-year-old New York native. Buzzfeed put together a roundup of the tweets. Davuluri became the first contestant of Indian heritage and second consecutive contestant from New York to win the pageant. Her platform issue was “celebrating diversity through cultural competency.’’
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AT&T’s 9/11 faux-pas
It’s probably safe to say that 9/11 is never the occasion to push your products. AT&T, however, did not seem to understand that this year. The telecommunications company tweeted “Never forget’’ with an image of a cellphone with beams of light representing the twin towers in what appeared to be an advertisement for the company. Needless to say the Twittersphere was outraged and the company later removed the tweet and issued an apology “to anyone who felt our post was in poor taste.’’
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Uh oh, SpaghettiOs
It’s probably safe to say that any national tragedy is never the occasion to push your products. SpahettiOs, a product of the Campbell Soup Company, posted a tweet about Pearl Harbor along with a photo of a grinning cartoon mascot jauntily holding an American flag. The tweet read, “Take a moment to remember #Pearharbor with us.’’ The tweet spread rapidly with many people expressing their outrage over the jarring post, saying the smiling cartoon didn’t jive well with the serious nature of the Pearl Harbor tragedy. The company later issued an apology.
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Carlos Danger
Anthony Weiner was again embroiled in scandal this year when more of his lewd online behavior surfaced during his run for mayor of New York City. Enter, Carlos Danger. That’s the pseudonym Weiner used to initiate explicit exchanges with several women over the Internet, a year after he resigned from Congress due to backlash from a previous sex scandal where he was found to have sent graphic messages and photos of his private parts to women and strangers he met online. The scandal brought more shame and embarrassment (and this fun Carlos Danger name generator tool) for the democrat, who was trying to make a political comeback. Weiner lost his bid for mayor.
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The Dunkin’ Donuts tirade
A Florida woman, upset that she did not get a receipt for a Dunkin’ Donuts purchase, decided to return to the store to complain and demand a free meal. The woman, Taylor Chapman, recorded the encounter on her phone and posted the video on Facebook. What she recorded ended up being a profanity-laced tirade with racial slurs against the employees who were trying to help her. The video went viral and was picked up on various sites. Chapman later took down the video, but it continues to live on online. After the incident Chapman was fired from her job, and the Dunkin’ Donuts said it would honor the employees she berated for keeping their cool under difficult circumstances.
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Amanda Bynes
It was a rough year for Amanda Bynes. The former child star’s antics made many people wonder what happened to the funny girl we knew and loved from Nickolodeon? There were the Twitter outbursts (which prompted some of her followers and fellow celebs to question whether she needed help), the court appearances, the strange videos, the racy Twitpics, the cheek piercings, the bong throwing case, the blue wig, and the driveway fire incident. Following this series of events, things took a serious turn for the 27-year-old actress, when she was ordered to check into a psychiatric center and later moved to a rehab center. As of early December, however, things appeared to be looking up for Bynes. A lawyer said she has left an inpatient mental health treatment facility and is back with her parents.
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Amy’s Baking Company
Amy’s Baking Company rose to infamy this year when the Scottsdale, Ariz., restaurant was featured on the season finale of FOX’s “Kitchen Nightmares,’’ a show that aims to help struggling restaurants turn their businesses around. In the episode, husband and wife owners Amy and Samy Bouzaglo displayed over-the-top antics including fighting with customers, keeping the staff’s tips, and firing an employee after she asked a question. Their questionable business behavior led the show’s host Gordon Ramsey to walk out for the first time in the program’s history. When the show aired, the couple seemingly took to their Facebook page to posts angry messages and lash out at their critics. The posts became more aggressive and laced with expletives. The couple later claimed their Facebook page was hacked but then another official page for the company popped up and was again filled with the same vitriolic outbursts. The Bouzaglos took a huge hit after the epic meltdown and even face legal problems. The latest reports on these two were that they were trying to shop a new reality show and are still angry at the Internet, and firing back at critics.
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Tyler Seguin’s Twitter problem
Former Bruins forward Tyler Seguin got himself into some trouble on Twitter when he tweeted an antigay phrase in a message about a song by Boston rapper Slaine. He said, “Just listened to the song in my bed. Gave me goosebumps no homo…’’ Seguin deleted the tweet and then posted an apology. Unfortunately that wasn’t the end of his Twitter woes. Fast forward a few months and Seguin, who was traded to Dallas, posts another controversial tweet about “steers and queers in Texas.’’ That tweet was also taken down and the former Bruin later claimed his account was hacked.
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Geraldo Rivera’s disturbing selfie
2013 was the year of selfie (it’s true — even the Oxford Dictionary said so), but some people have taken the smartphone self-portrait way too far. Case in point: Geraldo Rivera, who for some reason thought the world wanted, no needed to see him semi-naked when he tweeted a topless photo of himself wearing a strategically placed towel.
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The Reddit witch hunt
In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, site members on Reddit took up the cause of trying to identify the bombers with some amateur sleuthing. Unfortunately, Redittors wrongly identifed several people as the suspects, even posting their personal information, which brewed into an online witch hunt. The site’s general manager later posted an apology, saying the activity “spiraled into very negative consequences for innocent parties.’’
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The Ray Lewis diss
The Patriots playoff loss to the Ravens was a big blow to Boston sports fans, but Wes Welker’s wife took things to another level when she jumped on Facebook to blast Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis. “Proud of my husband and the Pats,” Anna Burns Welker wrote. “By the way, if anyone is bored, please go to Ray Lewis’ Wikipedia page. 6 kids, 4 wives. Acquitted for murder. Paid a family off. Yay! What a hall of fame player! A true role model!” The former Patriots star receiver’s wife later apologized.
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Bqhatevwr
In a series of bizarre late-night tweets, former US senator Scott Brown left many people perplexed, confused, and wondering if he had been drinking heavily. In the tweets, the Republican politician appears to be sending random message to Twitter users. Brown later deleted the typo-laced gibberish (though of course the messages live on forever on the Internet) and blamed the incident on his smartphone and “pocket tweeting.’’ Bqhatevwr.
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The Manti Te’o hoax
The story of Manti Te’o is perhaps one of the biggest internet hoaxes and scandals of the year. Manti Te’o was a star Notre Dame linebacker who became a symbol of strength and resilience after suffering several personal losses within months including the death of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who was stricken with leukemia. After her death, Te’o’s teammates and the entire Notre Dame community rallied around him. Te’o became a symbol of the team and led them to a championship win. His heartbreaking story was picked up by dozens of major media outlets across the country. But on Jan. 16, 2013 everything changed. Deadspin broke the news of how the whole story of Lennay Kekua was a lie. She did not exist. A firestorm ensued on social media as details of the scandal came out. It turned out Te’o had never met Kekua and only spoke with her online and on social media. Te’o said he was duped. Weeks later, in another twist, a man named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, an acquaintance of Te’o, told Dr. Phil he was behind the “Lennay Kekua’’ hoax and fell in love with the football player. Te’o now plays for the San Diego Chargers.
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