PR exec Justine Sacco fired over AIDS tweet

The internet never sleeps and apparently some people still haven't grasped the concept of what is and what isn't appropriate on social media. Justine Sacco is the latest to learn that when it comes to Twitter, some things are better left unsaid.

Friday night Sacco, head of corporate communications for IAC, sent out a tweet that caught the world by surprise. Her tweet read:

"Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!"

Sacco's ignorant and insensitive tweet got her fired from her senior level position.

Her former employer, IAC, had this to say in a statement released yesterday (Dec. 21):

"The offensive comment does not reflect the views and values of IAC. 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."

Sacco has finally broken her silence over the issue. She released a written statement today (Dec. 22) in which she apologizes for the tweet.

In the statement she apologized "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."

And in a bazaar twist, Sacco added that she is a native of South Africa. Who would've thought?

Needless to say, watch what you tweet.