Clearly one unfortunate post online may ruin the credibility people spend years creating. The real stories we want to tell you about are just another lesson for us all: we need to be very mindful about what we are sharing online and talking about before we act. And even anything written years ago can still do significant damage to your career and reputation.
1. A hip-hop singer and her politically incorrect statements
An American hip-hop singer Azealia Banks was accused of plagiarism by a Pakistani man, Zayn Malik, in 2016. She put it on the tweet. And she made some negative remarks about his nationality too.
As a result, the Twitter account of the singer was temporarily blocked, and Azealia was later banished from the Born and Bred London Music Festival programme. Azealia ‘s career wasn’t entirely ruined, but fewer people started attending her shows, and her income decreased.
2. A soccer team and a bad metaphor
The Spartak soccer team in Moscow published a video on their Facebook page where Georgy Gikiya shot a video of the Brazilian Spartak players and said, “Look at the chocolates melting in the sunshine.” The article was removed later, and the team management apologised for this blunt expression.
Yet people recall this anyway: British newspapers and the BBC channel released poor articles in which they accused the racist Russian soccer squad.
3. A model and her very old post
A British Pakistani actress, Amena Khan, was expected to be the first woman wearing a hijab which would become L’Oreal ‘s logo. The campaign was never launched because Amena was reminded by Twitter users of her old derogatory comments about the Jewish people and Israel. The girl wrote these posts and in 2014, they were removed.
4. An inappropriate joke about a job
An American woman, Connor Riley, had a work interview in 2009 and got a work offer for multinational Cisco corporation. She decided to share this wonderful news with her followers on Twitter and wrote, “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to balance the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hate the work.”
This tweet was discovered by some of the company’s staff who replied, “Who’s the hiring manager? I’m sure they’d love to know you ‘re going to hate the jobs. We ‘re versed in the web here at Cisco.” The job offer was withdrawn.
5. A star’s remarks about a producer
In 2011, Charlie Sheen, an American film actor and the star of Two and a Half Men, wrote a post in which he mocked the series creator Chuck Lorre by calling him a clown. As a result, the actor has been fired by sitcom management. Yet Charlie Sheen became the most well-paid star on American television, thanks to Two and a Half Men.
6. A supermodel and a tea party in a Chinese restaurant
Supermodel Gigi Hadid had visited a Chinese restaurant in February 2017. She saw a cookie shaped like the head of Buddha, placed it to her face and made a similar smile. The video was shared on Twitter by her younger sister Bella. Many people were angry about Gigi’s racist behaviour on social media and the model had to apologize.
Gigi was eventually denied a visa to China which made it impossible for her to take part in Shanghai’s Victoria’s Secret show.
7. Leaking the information
The famous American TV show Glee starred featuring actress Nicole Kaiser for a small part. The girl was so enthusiastic about the news she wanted to share it with her Twitter followers and shared a preview of the project’s second season. Management of the series had been quite shocked. That is how she finished her career before it even started.
8. A daughter endangering her father’s career
Brooke Amelia Peterson is the daughter of an Apple engineer and when she went to visit him, her father let her test the new iPhone X. The girl made a new phone video and showed what a couple of apps looked like on it, and uploaded the video to YouTube.
Apple representatives approached the girl soon after the video was released, and asked her to remove the video. Her father had to justify what his daughter did to the business and make excuses on her behalf. But the engineer was already being fired for corporate Apple regulation breaches. Peterson later said she was unaware of the fact that she violated any rules.
