Latest news with #publicshaming
Fast Company
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Fast Company
Astronomer CEO's viral Coldplay moment reminds us: We're all being watched all the time
Convenience stores often have signs that read, 'Smile, you're on camera,' to discourage all who enter from engaging in transgressive behavior. Perhaps those signs should go everywhere now. On Thursday, the CEO of tech company Astronomer was captured on the Jumbotron at a Coldplay concert, seemingly committing marital infidelity with an employee. A TikTok of the incident went mega-viral, racking up 56 million views in 24 hours on that platform alone, while also exploding across every other social media site, not to mention countless group chats. There's something eerie, though, about how quickly and completely an apparent personal indiscretion became universal content. It's a cautionary tale for a new era of public shaming. The Jumbotron Moment Heard 'round the World blew up at such an incendiary level, on a bustling news day, for many reasons. The clumsy, deeply human way that the CEO and his employee seemed to realize they were suddenly visible, and then struggled to teleport out of sight, is almost objectively funny. It's also a cross-cultural story, encompassing the worlds of tech, music, and general human interest. Few current events, after all, get an equal amount of coverage at both PopCrave and Business Insider. The story also seemed to resonate because Coldplay might be the most memeable band that could've been involved in such a situation, inspiring countless jokes on social media about not wanting to be caught dead at a Coldplay concert. But the reason the Jumbotron moment has not only captured so much attention but sustained it is because, after becoming a matter of public consumption, the story metastasized into a saga. The more people found out what happened, the more unresolved variables they unearthed, including how the spouses of both the CEO and the employee reacted, what the board at Astronomer thinks of the incident, and how the CEO will address all of this. What we do in the shadows Jumbotrongate is now more than just a viral moment—to many online observers, it's become an irresistibly spicy parasocial true-crime drama, one unfolding in real time, rather than in a Netflix docuseries. The apparently grueling wait for a statement from the CEO has inspired chaos agents to release multiple bogus apologies online. A Facebook posting of one of the fakes late on Thursday night has already garnered 55,000 reactions and 14,000 comments. This impatience to hear directly from the person at the center of a massively viral, still-developing saga recalls one of the earliest, broadest, and most notorious examples of online shaming— the Justine Sacco incident. Just before Christmas in 2013, Sacco, a senior PR executive, sent an ill-advised tweet as she boarded an 11-hour flight to South Africa. 'Going to Africa,' the tweet began, before taking a turn for the controversial: 'Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!' Although Sacco had a relatively paltry following of less than 200 people at the time, the tone-deaf tweet came to the attention of a writer at Gawker, who helped it go tremendously, globally viral. The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet quickly became inescapable on Twitter, driving more communal anticipation to find out what would happen next than arguably any public event since O.J. Simpson's white Bronco chase 20 years earlier. The incident sparked both a wave of public shaming and an awareness of how it changing people's lives. (Sacco was let go from her job at InterActive Corp., though she was later rehired in a different role.) In the years to come, people would be shamed for killing a beloved lion during a hunting trip, for threatening to call the police on a Black man under false pretenses, and for appearing to masturbate during a work Zoom. What is now happening with the CEO of Astronomer, however, is a completely different beast. What he did may be perceived as morally objectionable and sleazy but it's ultimately a private matter that managed to break containment and reach a global audience. Who deserves anonymity? Sacco may not have deserved the level of attention wrought by her tweet in 2013, but unlike the Astronomer CEO's conduct, her offensive joke was something that she felt comfortable broadcasting to the world. Meanwhile, as an American abroad, being in a crowd of thousands in an Australian arena during a Coldplay concert must have felt like the most anonymous place in the world. If the lesson from #HasJustineLanded was 'Be careful what you tweet,' the one from this saga is more like, 'Be careful what you do anywhere at any time.' There's certainly something satisfying about seeing an apparent cheater get his comeuppance, but those celebrating it might be a little too comfortable living in a surveillance state. Most people have an implicit understanding that Nest camera footage or Alexa recordings might come up in court, and that we each leave a gigantic breadcrumb trail of data behind us wherever we go online, but it's easy to convince ourselves that the Sauron's eye-like panopticon will never turn on us personally. The Astronomer CEO's turn in the barrel should be seen as a warning that no matter who or where you are, a camera is never far away, and it's probably aimed in your direction.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Are they ‘having an affair' or just shy? The couple caught on Coldplay's kiss cam
It is a moment of shock and mortification in Massachusetts that has transfixed the internet. A camera at a Coldplay concert near Boston sweeps the audience and picks out a canoodling couple. But as they see their image beamed on to the screen the man and woman do not kiss and wave. Instead, their eyes widen in horror and they break apart: she turns and buries her face in her hands, he ducks down to the ground, perhaps willing it to swallow him. 'Oh what,' Chris Martin, Coldplay's singer, said from the stage. 'Either they're having an affair or they're very shy.' Within minutes of the incident on Wednesday at the Gillette stadium in Foxborough, online sleuths were investigating and soon ruled out the second theory. The man was identified as Andy Byron, the married chief executive of Astronomer, a software development company, and the woman was identified as Kristin Cabot, its head of human resources. The status of their relationship has not been confirmed but glee does not do justice to the speed with which the clip went viral and the schadenfreude it elicited. 'Busted!' was a common refrain. '#zerosympathy,' was another. Byron sits on the board and has been the head of Astronomer, which is based in Cincinnati, since 2023. Cabot joined in November 2024 as chief people officer. In a press release that announced her hiring, Byron called her a proven leader. 'Kristin's exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory,' he said. In the same press release Cabot lauded the company. 'I was energised in my conversations with Andy and the Astronomer leadership team about the opportunities that exist here,' she said. In a purported statement from Byron on Thursday, the executive apologised to his family and colleagues. However, the news site cited a company representative who said the statement was fake. During the concert Chris Martin appeared to reference the kiss-cam couple and to anticipate the fallout. 'Holy shit,' he told the crowd. 'I hope we didn't do something bad.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Are they having an affair or just shy? The couple caught on Coldplay's kiss cam
It is a moment of shock and mortification in Massachusetts that has transfixed the internet. A camera at a Coldplay concert near Boston sweeps the audience and picks out a canoodling couple. But as they see their image beamed on to the screen the man and woman do not kiss and wave. Instead, their eyes widen in horror and they break apart: she turns and buries her face in her hands, he ducks down to the ground, perhaps willing it to swallow him. 'Oh what,' Chris Martin, Coldplay's singer, said from the stage. 'Either they're having an affair or they're very shy.' Within minutes of the incident on Wednesday at the Gillette stadium in Foxborough, outside Boston, online sleuths were investigating and soon ruled out the second theory. The man was identified as Andy Byron, the married CEO of Astronomer, a software development company, and the woman was identified as Kristin Cabot, its head of human resources. The status of their relationship has not been confirmed but glee does not do justice to the speed with which the clip went viral and the schadenfreude it elicited. 'Busted!' was a common refrain. '#zerosympathy,' was another. Byron sits on the board and has been head of Astronomer, which is based in Cincinnati, since 2023. Cabot joined in November 2024 as chief people officer. In a press release that announced her hiring, Byron called her a proven leader. 'Kristin's exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory,' he said. In the same press release Cabot lauded the company. 'I was energised in my conversations with Andy and the Astronomer leadership team about the opportunities that exist here,' she said. In a purported statement from Byron on Thursday the CEO apologised to his family and colleagues. However, the news site cited a company representative who said the statement was fake. During the concert Chris Martin appeared to reference the Kiss Cam couple, and to anticipate the fallout. 'Holy shit,' he told the crowd. 'I hope we didn't do something bad.'
CNA
5 days ago
- Politics
- CNA
‘Overly harsh': Backlash after Chinese university expels female student over alleged liaison with Ukrainian gamer
DALIAN: A university student in China has been expelled for her suspected liaison with a former Ukrainian professional esports player, igniting fierce debate over whether the punishment was excessive, and whether her privacy was violated by being named and publicly shamed in a school notice and subsequent media coverage. Dalian Polytechnic University in Liaoning province published the expulsion notice on its website on Jul 8, fully naming the female student, who is surnamed Li. 'Your inappropriate behavior on December 16, 2024, has caused a severe negative impact,' read the notice issued by the school's student affairs office. 'You are hereby subject to expulsion from our university,' it said. In December, former Ukrainian esports player Danylo Teslenko, known as Zeus, claimed in a video to his fan group that he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a Chinese girl, who was allegedly Li, according to China Daily. The university cited disciplinary regulations stating that students who engage in improper relationships with foreigners that undermine national dignity and the school's reputation may face a demerit or more serious disciplinary action, depending on the circumstances, as reported by the Global Times. The university's announcement went viral on Chinese social media, stirring up fierce debate over Li's privacy and public shaming. The hashtag 'disciplined student should not be publicly shamed' has been one of the top trending topics on the Sina Weibo microblogging site, with article shares and threads garnering over 57 million views. 'The decision to expel is overly harsh and unjustified and also raises concerns about abuse of authority,' wrote a Weibo user with the handle tintinwt23 in a comment that drew thousands of likes. Others noted how Li's image still remained online, with her identity 'plastered across the internet'. Weibo user Ono's melon field, said that while Li's actions were wrong, the school's decision to expel her remained questionable. 'If having improper relations with a foreigner undermines national dignity and the school's reputation, what about having improper relations with a Chinese national?' Others noted how there was far less backlash surrounding the 38-year-old Teslenko and said publicly shaming Li for the incident was akin to being 'paraded on the streets'. 'Anger is being unfairly directed to the wrong person,' a Weibo user said. The Paper, a digital newspaper from Shanghai, said that while Li was an 'imperfect' victim amid accusations, her behaviour did not warrant expulsion according to official clauses under Chinese higher education law. Citing China's Civil Code, which protects citizens' personal data, Global Times said there was 'unlawful disclosure' of Li's private details. 'The current frenzy of sharing her intimate footage and personal data far exceeds the reasonable consequence she should bear for her misconduct,' it added. Some users have also lashed out at mainstream media coverage deemed to be insensitive. '(These outlets) talk about privacy, have they cared about the person's privacy? Let's not talk about independent outlets, some mainstream outlets have named her openly,' the user, going by the handle xiping junyushi, wrote on Weibo. 'Now that (these media outlets) have earned enough views and internet traffic, they're u-turning to talk about privacy, where's the shame?' In posts to his X account on Sunday, Teslenko said that there was 'no explicit content or anything disrespectful' in videos he posted with Li. He clarified that he was not married or in a relationship and refuted speculation about him having a wife or children. 'The only unfortunate thing is that the girl never mentioned she had a boyfriend,' said Teslenko. Teslenko said he has since deleted the videos, adding that he 'never meant to hurt anyone'. He also appealed to people to 'stop the hate' and said everybody makes mistakes - and that he had learnt from his. 'At the time, it felt like just a normal moment from life. I didn't (realise how it) could affect someone's personal situation.' 'Later I found out the girl was in a relationship and she faced a lot of hate because of it. I truly regret that things turned out this way.'
News.com.au
09-07-2025
- News.com.au
‘Entitled': Damning photo shows what's wrong with dog owners
An Aussie has had enough of an anonymous dog owner who repeatedly leaves their pet's droppings on the footpath outside their house. Taking to Reddit, the resident of a quiet suburban lane vented about the unpleasant and recurring problem and shared how they are trying to curb it. 'Our street is only several houses long. They're probably taking their dog to poop every morning and leaving the sh*t on the sidewalk every time,' the author explained. They then posted a photo showing just how bad the issue has become. There appears to be at least eight separate incidents, spaced along the path, making it clear this isn't a one-off occurrence. Neighbour's fed up response The poster decided to write a blunt message in chalk across the footpath that said: 'BAG YOUR DOG SH*T,' hoping the public shaming would finally make the offending owner do the right thing. While they admitted they 'felt stupid' retaliating in this way, they were fed up, especially considering 'you can get 50 bags for $2 at the shops'. 'I don't want to pick up your dog's faeces every other day,' they ranted, adding that chalk wasn't their preferred solution. 'Believe me, if I knew who it was, I'd be shovelling it into a bucket for a few weeks and ditching it on their driveway.' Commenters weigh in The post was flooded with hundreds of people chiming in to share similar experiences and how they dealt with it. One person summed up the sense of helplessness many people feel towards these situations. 'We had people having their dogs constantly do this on the footpath next to our side gate,' they said. 'Told the council and they did nothing. We got cameras and put up a sign telling them to stop doing it and council comes by the next morning and rips our sign and poster out'. Others also tried taking the matter into their own hands. 'Security cameras and posted them on the local noticeboard page,' said one. Another shared a recipe for a DIY dog repellent, while others said they have physically left the excrement in people's letterboxes before. Others were simply horrified by the sight. 'Wow, just saw the second picture. Too far,' said one. 'So disgusting and frustrating,' someone else empathised. 'Some, not all, dog owners are the most entitled pieces of sh*t in society,' another lamented. Fines for not picking up after your dog If you get caught not picking up after your dog in Australia, you could be hit with some hefty fines, though the amount depends on where you live and which council you fall under. In New South Wales, an on-the-spot fine for failing to remove your dog's poo can start at $275, but if it goes to court, you could face up to $880. In Queensland, the fine can reach up to $333, and in Victoria, penalties range from $100 to $500. Impacts of dog waste Australia has some of the highest pet ownership rates in the world, which increased during Covid – with almost half of all households owning dogs – meaning issues like this are only going to rise. While abandoned dog faeces are an annoyance, they can also have a significant impact on local environments and wildlife. Leaving dog waste uncollected can introduce harmful parasites and bacteria into the environment, posing risks to other animals. If the waste gets into waterways, it can act as fertiliser in aquatic ecosystems, leading to excessive algae growth that harms aquatic life. A report by the CSIRO this year found that even when it's not directly eaten, dog faeces can act as scent markers, signalling the presence of predators. This can cause native mammals and birds to avoid otherwise suitable habitats, reducing biodiversity and disrupting breeding and feeding patterns.
