Author: Rozina Sini / Source: BBC News
A woman secretly photographed on a flight to Dallas has released a statement about how she has been shamed and harassed since a fictional romance about her went viral on social media.
Parts of a conversation she had with a fellow passenger on 3 July was overheard by actress and comedian Rosey Blair and her boyfriend, who documented their interpretation of it as an unfolding romance which became known online as #PlaneBae.
But the woman says she has been hounded and doxxed – internet terminology for revealing someone’s personal information without their consent.
“I did not ask for and do not seek attention. #PlaneBae is not a romance – it is a digital-age cautionary tale about privacy, identity, ethics and consent,” she said in a statement given to Business Insider by her lawyer.
The original, and now edited thread was posted to Twitter and gained more than 250,000 retweets and interactions, and more than half a million likes.
However, amid the thousands of comments from those believing they were witnessing true love unfold were some who thought it was intrusive and creepy.
The faces of the two passengers who had unwittingly become the subject of Rosey’s story had been blurred out, but an online hunt was under way to try to identify them.
The woman was being referred to as “pretty plane girl” and Twitter users posted screen shots of what they said was her Instagram account.
“My personal information has been widely distributed online,” she said in the statement.
“Strangers publicly discussed my private life based on patently false information. I have been doxxed, shamed, insulted…
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