Blog 10: Marines Social Media Scandal

In case you haven't heard, the Marines are under serious scrutiny right now after a huge social media scandal was revealed in recent weeks. Basically, a Facebook group called Marines United had over 30,000 members that were posting and exchanging nude photos and inappropriate commentary of fellow service members. There were numerous nude photos of Marines posted without their consent.
The following photo is the cover photo for the Facebook group called Marines United 2.0, leading me to believe that this is another version of the original group that had been deleted.

This photo is seriously inappropriate, showing the Hulk wearing make up and a hot pink bra. 

As a result of this scandal, the Marines have updated their social media policy to remind all service members that their behavior even off-duty or online may violate the Navy and Marine Corps orders and regulations. These actions could even be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and it is possible that the Marines involved in this Facebook group could face criminal prosecution.

The response to this scandal has been mixed, with some Marines coming forward to help with the investigation in any way they can and others slamming Marine leaders for how they have handled the situation. 

This scandal led other armed forces divisions to examine and reinforce their social media policies to their service members. This is not what the Marines need to be worried about, considering all the other duties they have to this country. The Marines involved with this Facebook group need to grow up and focus on their job instead of inappropriate pictures of their fellow service members. 

Blog 9: United Social Media Nightmare

I'm sure by now most, if not all, of us have seen the horrible viral video of a doctor being forcibly dragged off of a United Airlines flight this week. United Airlines had overbooked a flight and when no one offered to give up their seat, people were randomly selected to be removed from the flight. One of these randomly selected passengers was a doctor who had patients to see the next morning, so he refused to give up his seat. Fast forward to security yanking him out of his seat and dragging his body up the aisle of the plane. Unfortunately for United, this entire interaction was filmed by a passenger and this video now has over 1 million views on YouTube. This horrid video comes just a few weeks after United was in the news for not allowing two passengers to board a flight because they were wearing leggings.

The worst part of these events is United's reaction. The following tweets show how United responded to the leggings incident:

Then, just this week, United responded to the forced removal of their passenger by tweeting:

People are very upset by this response because United doesn't even address the video. United doesn't take responsibility or apologize for either event, and instead just blames their policies for what had occurred. The airline should have used social media to its advantage and issued a quick and appropriate reaction, but instead they have received even further backlash due to the lack of response.