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Social MediaWell not mine – thank goodness. WHEW!

There are two stories this week where the participants have said they were hacked in order to not accept responsibility for words THEY posted or tweeted.

As Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker in Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility”. (Yes – I’m a bit of a nerd.)  I strongly believe that applies to social media.

 

 

 

If you missed it – Earlier today, a 14 year old named Sarah tweeted a terrorist threat to American Airlines.

Sarah's Terrorist Tweet

American Airlines reacted strongly (much to her surprise).

Response from American Airlines

 

Twitter and the other platforms lit up and the tweets are going viral.

Once AA responded to Sarah, she freaked and reversed her position claiming it was a friend that had tweeted that to the airline. Seriously? Of course she went on to be somewhat thrilled with her 15 minutes of fame but worried that her parents would take her account away. In my opinion, they should anyway. She proved not to be able to handle the responsibility of a public platform. But that’s my personal opinion.

The second instance is our friends from Amy’s Baking Company. Remember them from last year?

They’re baa-ack!!

Friday night was the season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares with Gordon Ramsey and they revisited Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, AZ.  You remember Amy and Samy Bouzaglo.  Amy’s Baking Company was the first restaurant Gordon ever had to walk away from.  It was (or I should say they were) THAT bad!

OK – I admit it. I do love Gordon Ramsey and Kitchen Nightmares. Granted, some of the things he finds in these restaurants scare the bajeezus out of me. The thought that any kitchen could be that dirty, disorganized, or worse (insert your worst nightmare here). YUCK! I have a so much fun watching Gordon rant and rave and then transform someone’s business. He gives a whole new meaning to being passionate about his craft and some of his tirades are not for the faint of heart. Good thing I’m not easily offended.

In the original episode, Amy and Samy both came off looking like totally cray-cray. We’re talking raving lunatics. They were convinced that the world was out to get them. Yelp reviewers were liars that had never tried the food. They were being attacked unfairly. Customers who didn’t like the food were WRONG and asked to leave. It was genuinely shocking and almost uncomfortable to watch.

To make it all worse, they then took the fight to social media to “defend” themselves and created the biggest online Sh*t-storm anyone had ever seen. Bloggers and foodies alike had a field day. Skits and cartoons appeared all over the internet. The online battle made national news. Amy’s Baking Company became the poster child of what NOT to do in social media.

When the proverbial “poop” hit the fan, they reversed position and claimed that someone had hacked their accounts. They weren’t responsible for what was posted and tweeted. WHAT?! Strangely enough, it didn’t stop them from trying to capitalize on their notoriety by selling tee shirts with those infamous quotes on them.

Both instances are prime examples of the power (both good and bad) of social media. But it begs the question — Where do we draw the line? Do you believe you are responsible for what you post? I truly believe in freedom of speech but I also believe it should be tempered with common sense. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment, I read every one of them and I can’t wait to hear from you.