Social Media Against Companies
Companies have been using social media to advance their needs and garner attention from the masses. However, in some instances, that spotlight could backfire on the company. When there is an incident in public, people will take out their phones to record or take pictures of the incident. Next, many will post it on social media to grab the public's attention. It brings awareness to any unfair treatments, from employees to the customers. Companies must be careful of their actions in this transparent society.
United Airlines Fiasco
On April 9, 2017, videos surfaced on social media sites of a passenger on a United Airlines flight being forcibly dragged out of a plane. The passenger was later identified as David Dao.
The story started as such, United Express flight 3411 aircraft was completely boarded when the flight attendant announced on the flight that requires four volunteers to leave to make room for United staff. When nobody was convinced about the monetary incentives United offered, United decided to pick passengers at random. The first two passengers that were chosen left without a struggle, however, when David Dao was chosen, he said he would not leave as he had a patient to take care of next day.
United workers and David exchanged words and unable to remove David themselves, United employed the help of the Airport Police to remove him. Videos of the exchange were recorded and broadcasted on YouTube.
During the conflict between David Dao and Airport Police, Mr. Dao hit his face on the plane's chair, hurting his face and causing him to be bloodied. The first videos of the exchange started populating social media sites like Facebook, causing immediate public outrage.
United Airline's CEO, Oscar Munoz, made an initial statement of, "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers. Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened." Twitter's public response was nothing but unfriendly as they described the CEO's statement as "fake" and "heartless". The public reaction made the CEO put out a second public message that was rephrased to make the company more empathetic to Dr. Dao.
As a result of the debacle, United Airline's plummeted and many critics announced that they would no longer support United Airlines. This incident highlights the importance of good customer service, and proper public relations.
Three weeks after the fiasco United settled with Mr. Dao for an undisclosed amount. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/david-dao-settles-united-dragged-plane-article-1.3108494
Starbucks Calls 911 on Black Customers
On Thursday April 12 2018, a video was captured of two black men handcuffed walking out of a Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia.[1] This rapidly surfaced the web, questioning why were they arrested for.
These two black men were waiting inside of the Starbucks for their friend. Many customers stepped in to try to stop this but police continued with the arrest. Police officials say they were called initially because one male asked to use the bathroom without purchasing anything. Employees refused to allow them in the bathroom and explained to them bathrooms are for customers only. Next, they sat a table without making any purchase. The manager asked them to leave but they refused and said they were waiting for a friend. The manager then called 911, "Hi, I have two gentlemen at my café that are refusing to make a purchase or leave. I'm at the Starbucks at 18th and Spruce,". The two men were arrested for trespassing but no charges were filed.
When the police officers that arrived asked them three times to leave. The men were informed why they were asked to leave but they refused. They were arrested but then released when Starbucks didn't want to press any charges. Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross defended the actions of the police officers who arrested these two black men. Commissioner Ross said they did nothing wrong, they were just doing their job. Ross as well defends the two black males, indicating he is black as well, and states, "We are committed to fair and unbiased policing and anything less than that will not be tolerated in this department.".
After this video was posted, it went viral. This led to protests at the Starbucks location in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia.[2] One protest was so massive that it led for the location to shut down briefly. Protests held up signs and calling Starbucks "anti-black". The hashtag BoycottStarbucks was trending on Twitter. Many celebrities and politicians chimed in especially Philadelphia natives such as Kevin Hart.
On Saturday April 14 2018, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson released an apology statement. Johnson says, "Starbucks stands firmly against discrimination or racial profiling,".[3] He also mentions how this should have never escalated the way it did. The manager who called 911 is no longer working at that store. He hopes to meet with the two men. On Monday April 16 2018, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson met with the two men. Johnson apologized for how they were treated. Moving forward, Starbucks said one afternoon it will close about 8,000 Starbucks stores in the U.S. to educate employees about racial bias.