Consider your worst, most embarrassing intercultural blun-der, and then imagine it amplified a thousand fold or million and, fold for everyone to see. Social networking is instant once unleashed, it can't be throttled back. What follows is s with partial list of extremely awkward social media slip Up 1-i intercultural implications.'
YOUR TASK Consider the gravity of each offense; then, individually or in groups, discuss each for its take-away, the lesson to be learned from it. Contribute your own intercultural blunders that you or someone you know has experienced. Explain lessons learned.
a. Lawyers are not immune to social media gaffes. They seem to be just as prone to oversharing as the rest of us, although they are bound by confidentiality and professional ethics in what often are sensitive cases. An Indiana state prosecutor tweeted "use live ammunition," and he meant using live rounds against peaceful protesters. The prosecutor was responding to the news that riot police were attempting to remove demonstrators from the state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin—public servants protesting budget cuts and threats to their r collective bargaining rights.
b. As if to prove that humor is not universally shared, nor is it always in good taste, comedian Gilbert Gottfried tweeted this lame joke in the wake of the tsunami in Japan: "Japan called me. They said 'maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they're all sinking:" At the time, Gottfried was the spokesperson for insurer Aflac.
c. Home improvement chain Lowe's allowed a discussion on its Facebook page to get out of hand after with-drawing its advertising from a TLC reality show about Muslim families. The 23,000 comments on Facebook that followed were mostly critical of the company, but some praised the home improvement giant. Only when the media picked up the story did the company respond to offensive and racist posts by deleting all the messages and explaining its late intervention as "respect for the transparency of social media."
d. Australian airline Qantas tried to lure its customers with gift packs to describe their "dream luxury in-flight experience." However, this promotion coincided with grounded flights in response to ongoing strikes, and the passengers took to venting and griping, not praising,
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