NYT (“‘Coldplaygate’ Is a Stark Reminder That Cameras Are Everywhere“):
The internet’s latest obsession occurred at, of all places, a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Mass.
During the concert on Wednesday night, Chris Martin, the band’s frontman, announced that he would be singing to a select few fans in the crowd. “The way we’re going to do that is using our cameras,” he said. “So, if you look at the screens, we’re going to come looking and see who’s out there to say hello to.”
After Mr. Martin sang a happy birthday song to one ecstatic fan while playing mellow guitar, a giant screen in the stadium showed a couple embracing. The man, who the internet quickly identified as Andy Byron, the married chief executive of a tech company called Astronomer, held his arms around Kristin Cabot, the company’s chief people officer who is not his wife.
“Oh, look at these two,” Mr. Martin said, prepared to sing another sweet song. Then things became awkward.
When Ms. Cabot noticed her face on the screen, she immediately jumped out of Mr. Byron’s arms, covered her face and turned around. He ducked out of view. A woman standing beside them was seen cupping her face in disbelief, her mouth wide open.
Mr. Martin, realizing what was happening, said: “Wow, what? Either they’re having an affair, or they’re just very shy. I’m not quite sure what to do.”
The identities of Mr. Byron and Ms. Cabot were confirmed by a spokesman for Astronomer on Friday night after the company issued a statement saying Mr. Byron had been placed on leave and that the company’s chief product officer, Peter DeJoy, would serve as interim C.E.O.
[…]
The incident, which has dominated social media, was a stark reminder of how quickly things can spread thanks to social media and how cameras are surrounding people at all times. That is especially true at large concerts where fans are often recording snippets or streaming them on social media. Case in point: The video of Wednesday’s interaction was posted by a concertgoer with a modest TikTok following. But thanks to the power of that app’s algorithm, it had more than 77 million views as of Friday evening.
It took only a few seconds of video for Mr. Byron and Ms. Cabot to thoroughly dominate internet discourse and become an instant meme, which many have called “Coldplaygate.”
As the video circulated, some shared their advice for the couple, suggesting they could have covered themselves in a blanket or thrown on a pair of shades. Others pointed out how awkward things would be at their office the next day.
The moment proceeded to be shared, and joked about, by politicians, corporations and even New York City’s sanitation department.
From there, it turned into a broader discussion of privacy and why they had been wrong to assume they would not be seen and, potentially, recorded.
“If you’re in a public place, there is absolutely no expectation of privacy,” said Charles Lindsey, an associate professor of marketing at University at Buffalo School of Management. “When you’re in a public place, whether it be a public park, a store, a concert, there are cameras, and if it’s on camera, you can’t take it back.”
Which has been true for a very long time. I was asking, “When everyone can record video at any time and post it for all the world to see, is there such a thing as privacy anymore?” at least as far back as June 2011.
I have no trouble understanding why a salacious story of relatively rich people being getting their comeuppance went viral on social media. And, once the incident went viral, I get why a public company would force out the scandalized CEO.
But, stories like this one using the incident to draw broader—if frankly obvious and banal—points notwithstanding, damned if I understand why any of this is news.
Before the incident, I had heard of neither Byron, Cabot, nor Astronomer. (I had, of course, heard of Coldplay.) Indeed, it appears that neither had Wikipedia; the entry for the company did not exist before this incident.
Neither Byron nor Cabot, therefore, are meaningfully public figures. I have no idea what the prior state of Byron’s marriage was or whether Cabot is married, so the degree to which the scandal is even scandalous is not clear. Whether senior leaders of a minor software company are fooling around is of little to no public interest. And, hell, for all we know this was their first date.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: James Joyner
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.outsidethebeltway.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
