
Tech firm CEO resigns after controversy over video captured at Coldplay live performance
Andy Byron resigned from his job as CEO of Cincinnati-based Astronomer Inc., in accordance with a press release posted on LinkedIn by the corporate on Saturday (July 19, 2025).
“Astronomer is dedicated to the values and tradition which have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are anticipated to set the usual in each conduct and accountability, and not too long ago, that normal was not met,” the corporate stated in its put up on LinkedIn.
The transfer comes a day after the corporate stated that Mr. Byron had been positioned on go away and the board of administrators had launched a proper investigation into the jumbotron incident, which went viral. An organization spokesman later confirmed in a press release to AP that it was Mr. Byron and Astronomer chief individuals officer Kristin Cabot within the video.
The brief video clip exhibits Mr. Byron and Ms. Cabot as captured on the jumbotron at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, throughout a Coldplay live performance on Wednesday (July 16, 2025).
Lead singer Chris Martin requested the cameras to scan the gang for his “Jumbotron Song,” when he sings just a few strains concerning the individuals the digicam lands on.
“Either they’re having an affair or they’re simply very shy,” he joked.
Internet sleuths recognized the person because the chief govt officer of a U.S.-based firm and the lady as its chief individuals officer.
Pete DeJoy, Astronomer’s cofounder and chief product officer, has been tapped as interim CEO whereas the corporate conducts a seek for Byron’s successor.
It’s straightforward to overlook, however most live performance venues have indicators informing the viewers that they could possibly be filmed throughout the occasion. Look for them on the partitions if you arrive and across the bar areas or bathrooms. It’s widespread follow particularly when bands like to make use of performances for music movies or live performance movies.
The venue on this case, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, additionally has a privateness coverage on-line which states: “When you go to our location or attend or take part in an occasion at our location, we might seize your picture, voice and/or likeness, together with via the usage of CCTV cameras and/or after we movie or {photograph} you in a public location.”
“They in all probability would have gotten away with it in the event that they hadn’t reacted,” stated Alison Taylor, a scientific affiliate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. And by the point the alleged identities emerged on social media, it hit a basic nerve round “leaders performing like the foundations don’t apply to them,” she added.
Still, Mr. Taylor and others stress how rapidly such a video result in an web search to search out the individuals concerned — and notice that it’s essential to do not forget that such “doxing” isn’t simply reserved for well-known individuals. Beyond somebody merely recognizing a well-known face and spreading the phrase, technological advances, such because the rising adoption of synthetic intelligence, has made it simpler and sooner general to search out nearly anybody in a viral video at the moment.
“It’s a little bit bit unsettling how simply we will be recognized with biometrics, how our faces are on-line, how social media can monitor us — and the way the web has gone from being a spot of interplay, to a big surveillance system,” stated Mary Angela Bock, an affiliate professor within the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. “When you concentrate on it, we’re being surveilled by our social media. They’re monitoring us in alternate for entertaining us.”
Published – July 20, 2025 03:33 am IST
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