Question

1.Identify consequences for three different groups, for instance the public, Muslim audiences, Lowes, Facebook, TLC, the media etc.

2.What responsibility does the company have?

Situation

Consider the gravity of each offence; individually discuss each for its takeaway, the lesson to be learned from it. Contribute your own intercultural blunders that you or someone you know has experienced. Explain the lessons learned.

A. Home improvement chain Lowes allowed a discussion on its Facebook page to get out of hand after withdrawing its advertising from a TLC reality show about Muslim families. The 23,000 comments on Facebook that followed were mostly critical of the company, but some praised the home improvement giant. Only when the media picked up the story did the company respond to offensive and racist posts by deleting all the messages and explaining its late intervention as respect for the transparency of social media.