Astronomer CEO Andy Byron resigns after controversy over Coldplay concert video
Andy Byron resigned from his job as CEO of Cincinnati-based Astronomer Inc, according to a statement posted on LinkedIn by the company on Saturday (Jul 19).
'Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,' the company said in its post on LinkedIn.
The move comes a day after the company said that Byron had been placed on leave and the board of directors had launched a formal investigation into the jumbotron incident, which went viral.
A company spokesman later confirmed in a statement to AP that it was Byron and Astronomer chief people officer Kristin Cabot in the video.
The short video clip shows Byron and Cabot as captured on the jumbotron at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, during a Coldplay concert on Wednesday.
Lead singer Chris Martin had asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his Jumbotron Song when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on.
'Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy,' he joked.
Internet sleuths identified the man as the chief executive officer of a US-based company and the woman as its chief people officer.
Pete DeJoy, Astronomer's cofounder and chief product officer, has been tapped as interim CEO while the company searches for Byron's successor.
CONCERT VENUES
It's easy to miss but most concert venues have signs informing the audience that they could be filmed during the event.
It is common practice, especially when bands like to use performances for music videos or concert films.
The venue in this case, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, also has a privacy policy online which states: 'When you visit our location or attend or participate in an event at our location, we may capture your image, voice and/or likeness, including through the use of CCTV cameras and/or when we film or photograph you in a public location.'
'They probably would have got away with it if they hadn't reacted,' said Alison Taylor, a clinical associate professor at New York University's Stern School of Business.
Still, Taylor and others stressed how quickly such a video leads to an internet search to find the people involved and noted that it was important to remember that such 'doxing' isn't just reserved for famous people.
Beyond someone simply spotting a familiar face and spreading the word, technological advances, such as the rising adoption of artificial intelligence, have made it easier and faster overall to find just about anyone in a viral video today.
'It's a little bit unsettling how easily we can be identified with biometrics, how our faces are online, how social media can track us – and how the internet has gone from being a place of interaction to a gigantic surveillance system,' said Mary Angela Bock, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism and Media.
'When you think about it, we are being surveilled by our social media. They're tracking us in exchange for entertaining us.'
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