Business Insider CTO fired for tweet from 2010 and comment on TechCrunch apology

http://amima42.tumblr.com/post/60917621574/firing-cto-for-a-couple-of-old-tweets-is-not-a-sign-of

by amima • 13 years ago

13 5 13 years ago

amima42.tumblr.com

jfarmer• 13 years ago

This article adds nothing to the conversation and is poorly edited to boot. The author thinks it's bad that this happened and he rants about it for 10-or-so paragraphs. It's not worth reading, let alone having on the front page of HN.

amima• 13 years ago

Well, it's not actually an article, it's just a summary of the story. I would appreciate your detailed feedback and will be happy to edit post and add something to it that you find valuable.

hnnnnng• 13 years ago

Insane overreactions are becoming extremely commonplace and quite frankly, its very disillusioning. I'm extremely disappointed in the tech community. Being an ass is not the same as discriminating against or hating a group of people.

k__• 13 years ago

Why can't people be true to them selfs and admit, that they're sexist or racist or something?

Everyone is in one or another way.

A big part of the problem is, that people tell them selfs they're the good guys.

"I'm not racist, but..." blablabla

You are! Everyone is!

It's not good, but it's even worse if you do racist/sexist stuff without even realizing it. Because then you give up control over your behaviour and let your subconsciousnes drive your live.

whbk• 13 years ago

"5. The internet outrage suddenly switches to him. The employee of Business Insider calls him an asshole on twitter."

This is incorrect -- Anil Dash doesn't work for Business Insider. Agree with your first and second takeaways. Beyond that..not so much. You mentioned potential cultural differences, here's my American perspective:

While the tweets in question may be a small sample of the overall volume, you just can't make those statements as an officer of a company. Period. Because:

-He used the N word. Sounds like he was referencing a movie out around then, but given our country's history, that word is just 100% off limits and rightfully so.

-In the US, we're finally coming around to the fact that gay people aren't a scourge on society. We also (especially in tech) are working to make the workplace more friendly to women than it has been in the past. We're also a very litigious country, meaning that having an officer making those kinds of statements about protected classes while being involved in hiring/firing decisions exposes the company to risks that 95+% of executives would be wise/willing enough not to expose their employer to.

You may be right that most people have tweeted something that would outrage people, but if you want to be one of the faces of a company, part of your job is not doing that. I tweeted plenty of dumb stuff (not racist/sexist, mind you) while drunk in college and with a privacy-protected account. Given that I aspire to hold an executive-level position, I went through and removed all of those tweets as I was nearing graduation and made my account public, and I avoid those types of posts now. Image matters.

Business Insider CTO fired for tweet from 2010 and comment on TechCrunch apology

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