{"id":17106,"date":"2025-07-23T04:12:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17106\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T04:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T04:12:07","slug":"the-viral-coldplay-kiss-cam-video-shows-digital-sleuthing-can-go-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/17106\/","title":{"rendered":"The viral Coldplay kiss-cam video shows digital sleuthing can go too far"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Internet sleuths identified the people in the video from a Coldplay concert as Andy Byron, the now-former CEO of tech company Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company\u2019s head of HR.tiktok screenshot<\/p>\n

By now, you\u2019ve likely seen the clip. Or maybe one of the memes, reaction videos or real-life re-enactments that have swallowed the internet in recent days. <\/p>\n

The original 15-second video, filmed by an audience member at Coldplay\u2019s concert near Boston last week and posted on TikTok<\/a>, shows the jumbotron cutting to a seemingly happy couple embracing and then abruptly pulling away from each other when they realize they\u2019re on camera. \u201cEither they\u2019re having an affair or they\u2019re just very shy,\u201d quipped Coldplay\u2019s Chris Martin. The clip has more than 125 million views on TikTok. <\/p>\n

Internet sleuths quickly identified the people in the video as Andy Byron, the now-former chief executive<\/a> of tech company Astronomer, and Kristin Cabot, the company\u2019s head of HR, as well as the fact that they appeared to be married to other people.<\/p>\n

People on social media began immediately digging into Mr. Byron\u2019s and Ms. Cabot\u2019s Facebook and LinkedIn accounts like forensic investigators, creating digital dossiers of personal information that were then shared and further dissected on TikTok. <\/p>\n

The attention spilled over into the real world, too. On the weekend, major-league sports teams recreated the scene at games and brands posted their own memes to capitalize on the moment. <\/p>\n

The kiss-cam clip contains a confluence of factors that made it the perfect viral storm. It happened at the concert of one of the biggest bands in the world, captures alleged infidelity \u2013 one of the juiciest types of gossip \u2013 and involves a person in a position of power. <\/p>\n

The viral reaction highlights social media\u2019s rabid obsession with online sleuthing and subsequent public shaming. But it also reveals how sleuthing can go too far and wade into murky ethical territory when it involves non-public figures. <\/p>\n

\u201cSleuthing has a long history on the internet, in part because it\u2019s a deeply social practice that unites people around a common goal,\u201d said Brooke Erin Duffy, a social-media researcher and associate professor at Cornell University, in an interview. \u201cSocial media fuels these activities by enabling users to sift through our digital traces, cobbling together information from across platforms and user accounts.\u201d <\/p>\n

After Mr. Byron and Ms. Cabot were identified, the sleuthing snowballed. Family photos of them, both real and AI-generated, were disseminated and reshared, while commenters debated their past relationships and children. They both deleted their LinkedIn profiles. <\/p>\n

Not all of the information posted has been correct. Astronomer released a statement<\/a> clarifying that a third person who was seen in the video seemingly cringing at Mr. Byron\u2019s and Ms. Cabot\u2019s reaction was not an employee at the company, as was widely speculated on social media, and that a statement supposedly from Mr. Byron was fake. <\/p>\n

Many on social media didn\u2019t seem too concerned about posting or resharing misinformation. Snooping on the online personal life of a CEO seemed like fair game. <\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes people are hesitant to do that extent of sleuthing if they feel like someone has really been harmed,\u201d said Emily Mendelson, a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies how social media affects our relationships, in an interview. \u201cThe fact that he\u2019s the CEO of a tech company absolves people of the ethical qualms we would normally have.\u201d <\/p>\n

What did Coldplay\u2019s jumbotron capture? The internet has its theories<\/a><\/p>\n

What is it about watching a stranger\u2019s \u2018get ready with me\u2019 videos that\u2019s so appealing?<\/a><\/p>\n

But digital vigilantes don\u2019t only go after those in traditional positions of social or economic power. Before the Coldplay kiss-cam, there was, in classic internet parlance, Couch Guy and Airplane Guy, other examples of alleged cheaters caught on video who then inadvertently became the persona non grata on social media. <\/p>\n

Robert McCoy, better known as Couch Guy, was accused of cheating after a video of him reacting to a surprise visit from his long-distance girlfriend went viral. In a personal essay for Slate<\/a>, Mr. McCoy described being vilified online and how internet sleuths revealed his name, birthdate and place of residence. \u201cIt felt like the entertainment value of the meme began to overshadow our humanity,\u201d he wrote. <\/p>\n

Ms. Mendelson, who has studied the fallout of the Couch Guy meme, said internet sleuths are often drawn to infidelity stories because relationships are a universal experience. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a weird, toxic parasociality people have about other people\u2019s relationships because they don\u2019t have to experience any of the ramifications of breaking up or heartbreak,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd since relationships are the foundation of how we experience others, people feel qualified to comment about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Catching cheaters is its own niche on social media. There are more than 200 Facebook groups named \u201cAre we dating the same guy?\u201d which provide a place for women to share the dating profiles of men they\u2019ve matched, while a common video template on TikTok is users publicizing conversations they overheard of alleged cheating. <\/p>\n

\u201cColdplay-gate\u201d draws on this online phenomenon, and in the process enables a type of voyeurism formerly only reserved for celebrities or other public figures, said Dr. Duffy. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese events may seem trivial or glib, but they immerse people in deeply moral debates,\u201d she said. \u201cThe difference, however, is that unlike traditional celebrities who purportedly \u2018put themselves out there,\u2019 the visibility Byron and Cabot face was largely unanticipated.\u201d <\/p>\n

The day after the Coldplay kiss-cam video was posted, Astronomer said it was launching a formal investigation into the matter. By the next day, the company announced Mr. Byron had resigned as CEO.<\/p>\n

But for some online, his resignation doesn\u2019t mark the end of the saga. <\/p>\n

On Polymarket, the crypto-betting platform, there\u2019s currently half a million dollars in bets<\/a> on whether Mr. Byron and Ms. Cabot both get divorced by the end of the summer. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Internet sleuths identified the people in the video from a Coldplay concert as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,75,14895],"class_list":["post-17106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-lc-oc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}