Social media is a funny space. In the modern world where communication is everything, it has the power to make or break people. Even a single message or a video can cause irreversible damage to your reputation. And if you happen to be a multi-million dollar company, repercussions can be catastrophic.
Something similar happened in the case of United States-based United Airlines.
On April 9, 2017, a man was physically dragged from his seat on United Flight 3411 before it departed from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky. In the video shared on the social media by another passenger, the Asian man can be seen dragged on his back by his hands, bleeding from his mouth and screaming ‘just kill me‘.
The video went viral after it was picked up and shared by media channels across the globe, sparking a global outrage against United Airlines.
What added fuel to the raging fire against the airlines was a letter by the company CEO Oscar Munoz in which he stood by the decision of the crew while calling the passenger “disruptive and belligerent”. “Our employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like this,” he wrote in his letter.
Munoz’s letter proved to be the tipping point following which the company not only lost the trust of its passengers, respect among its peers but also a huge chunk of monkey in the market.
ALSO READ: Watch: Asian doctor bleeds as United Airlines officials drag him in an overbooked plane in US
According to the data on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the company lost more than $750 million after the video went viral on the social media. The incident dragged the market value of United from $22.5 billion to $21.70 billion, proving the amount of damage that active social media and bad PR can do.
United Airlines stock is being re-accomodated. $UAL pic.twitter.com/Zvr6a0R5vy
— Anthony De Rosa
