A public relations professional who caused a global backlash by posting an incredibly offensive Twitter comment about Africa and AIDS has apologized for her behavior.
Justine Sacco, who worked for Barry Diller’s media company IAC, sent out her tweet to more than 4,300 followers as she boarded a plane for South Africa from London’s Heathrow Airport.
“Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” she wrote, in a tweet that quickly went viral while she was mid-flight with no internet access.
On Saturday, Sacco issued an apology saying she was “very sorry for the pain I have caused.”
“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,” Sacco said in the statement, which was first released to South African newspaper The Star.
“There is an AIDS crisis taking place in this country, that we read about in America, but do not live with or face on a continuous basis. Unfortunately, it is terribly easy to be cavalier about an epidemic that one has never witnessed firsthand.
“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.”
“This is my father’s country, and I was born here. I cherish my ties to South Africa and my frequent visits, but I am in anguish knowing that my remarks have caused pain to so many people here; my family, friends and fellow South Africans. I am very sorry for the pain I caused.”
Sacco told ABC News that her “greatest concern was this statement reach South Africa first.”
A representative from IAC (which is the parent company of Vimeo, Tinder, About.com and many more) released a statement confirming Sacco had been fired.
“The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC,” the statement said. “We take this issue very seriously, and we have parted ways with the employee in question.”
“There is no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally. We hope, however, that time and action, and the forgiving human spirit, will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core.”
IAC had earlier released a statement condemning Sacco’s joke.
“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,” the statement said.
The former director of corporate communications at IAC has since deleted her Twitter account.
IAC also removed any mention of her name from its website and contacts page.
She was earlier listed as a media representative.
Sacco’s tweet had been retweeted more than 3,500 times and had more than 1,700 favorites before it was deleted when she arrived in Cape Town.
Twitter user @Zac_R posted pictures of her and family members arriving at the airport.
Zac said he was not a journalist, just a local that lived near the airport and “had to see if it was real.”
Nevertheless he won wide praise from Twitter users for his journalistic efforts.
He tweeted that he didn’t believe Sacco was a “horrible person,” just someone that “joked about something that should never be joked about.”
“Let’s not get consumed by mob mentality and run her name through the mud. Rather focus on the subject she joked about. Not the tweet,” he wrote.
He also described chatting with her father “for a few minutes,” who did not seem “outwardly racist.”
Her Twitter account @JustineSacco may have vanished but it was quickly replaced with a number of fake accounts with similar spellings, including @JustineSaccco and @lolJustineSacco.
The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet also quickly climbed to the top of Twitter’s trending topics.
It wasn’t the first offensive tweet Sacco had posted online. In fact Sacco made a number of internationally epic gaffes.
Just Friday, upon landing in London, she posted, “Chili- cucumber sandwiches- bad teeth. Back in London!”
The day before she wrote, “Weird German Dude: You’re in first class. It’s 2014. Get some deodorant.”
Another in January went, “I can’t be fired for things I say while intoxicated right?”
Her Twitter bio of the deleted account read “CorpComms at IAC. Troublemaker on the side. Also known for my loud laugh.”
The URL justinesacco.com was on Friday redirected to an Aid for Africa website, stipulating where the public can make donations to its HIV/AIDS support program.
This article originally appeared on News.com.au