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A video from a Coldplay concert this July showing Astronomer CEO Andy Byron with his arm around company HR chief Kristin Cabot exploded across social media, instantly becoming a cultural spectacle and a viral pile-on. What started as an awkward kiss cam moment at Gillette Stadium on July 16, 2025, was replayed and remixed until it became a national scandal — more proof that private mistakes now come with public executions.
Both executives quickly found their careers upended: Byron stepped down amid reported board pressure and Cabot resigned days later after being thrust into the merciless glare of online outrage. Companies are supposed to protect workplace integrity, but too often they act like frightened schools, cutting people loose to calm the social media mob rather than standing by measured process.
Kristin Cabot has since spoken publicly, admitting she “made a bad decision,” saying the interaction was a single, regretted moment and that she had developed feelings but did not have an ongoing affair. Her candor — owning a mistake instead of hiding — is the responsible thing, yet it did not stop the digital lynch mob from demanding permanent exile over a single embarrassing night.
Worse still, the collateral damage has been profoundly personal: Cabot says her children were terrified by the harassment and threats that followed, forcing the family into therapy and temporary relocation to escape online abuse. This is what cancel culture does — it doesn’t just cost jobs, it traumatizes families and ruins lives, and nobody in Silicon Valley seems willing to defend basic human decency.
Astronomer’s board launched an internal probe and issued bland statements about standards and accountability while hastily removing both leaders from public-facing roles, a textbook corporate response to a media feeding frenzy. Instead of calm, fact-driven inquiry, companies now reflexively capitulate to outrage, prioritizing brand safety over fairness and due process for hardworking people.
Americans can demand accountability without becoming a nation of online inquisitors eager to destroy anyone who errs in public. We should call for companies to enforce clear workplace rules while also resisting the urge to let internet mobs decide people’s fates; forgiveness and proportionate consequences are not signs of weakness but of a civilized society.
