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 Justine Sacco, who was subsequently fired from the prominent New
York-based Internet media company IAC/InterActive Corp after the
tweet created a firestorm on social media, issued a statement of
remorse on Sunday to ABC News and South Africa's The Star newspaper.
"Words cannot express how sorry I am, and how necessary it is for me
to apologize to the people of South Africa, who I have offended due
to a needless and careless tweet," she said.
"For being insensitive to this crisis — which does not discriminate
by race, gender or sexual orientation, but which terrifies us all
uniformly — and to the millions of people living with the virus, I
am ashamed," the statement said.
Just before boarding a plane for South Africa on Friday, Sacco
posted a tweet to her online account, saying: "Going to Africa. Hope
I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"
Sacco's tweet quickly circulated outside her relatively small circle
of about 500 followers, with thousands of users denouncing the
comment as racist and insensitive. Others called for her dismissal
from her post as IAC's director of corporate communications.
Sacco apparently remained unaware of the controversy caused by the
comment until she landed in Cape Town about 12 hours later. She
quickly issued a tweet apologizing, then deleted her account.
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IAC, which had condemned the message, said on Saturday that the
company and Sacco had "parted ways."
IAC operates more than a dozen Internet websites, including the news
site The Daily Beast, Vimeo, CollegeHumor and dating websites like
Match.com and OKCupid.
(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; editing by G Crosse)
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