Offline

Justine Sacco was a PR executive at InterActiveCorp. Before boarding a flight to South Africa, she tweeted a joke that wasn’t funny, the kind of edgy riff on racist stereotypes that feels clever for about five seconds. Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white! Then she was offline for eight hours.

When she landed, #HasJustineLandedYet was already trending. Her employer had made the decision. Thousands of people had spent her flight time treating her name like a game, mapping out who she was and what they could take from her. She turned her phone on, tried to defend herself, tried to explain the joke, tried to beg people to stop. The more she posted, the worse it got. By morning she was just sitting in a hotel room saying things like I have nothing left. I’m ruined.

Eight hours offline and your entire life is gone. Not a scandal that unfolds. Not controversy that gives you a chance to explain or apologize. Just one bad tweet, one hashtag, one news cycle, one mob moving together without anyone directing it. No way to survive, no second chance, no mercy. Just erased.

This was December 2013. Still early enough that people were shocked by how fast it could happen. It wouldn’t stay shocking for long.