Tech company CEO resigns after controversy over video captured at Coldplay concert

Key Points

• CEO Resignation: Astronomer Inc. CEO Andy Byron resigned after a video of him and the company’s chief people officer at a Coldplay concert went viral and prompted a board investigation.
• Interim Leadership: Cofounder and chief product officer Pete DeJoy has been named interim CEO while the company searches for Byron’s successor.
• Concert Filming Notices: Most venues, including Gillette Stadium, display signs and privacy policies warning attendees that their image and likeness may be captured and broadcasted.
• Viral Exposure Risks: Experts caution that viral concert clips can lead to rapid identification and “doxing” thanks to facial recognition and extensive online surveillance.

The IT company CEO captured in a widely circulated video showing him embracing an employee at a Coldplay concert has resigned.

Andy Byron resigned from his job as CEO of Cincinnati-based Astronomer Inc., according to a statement posted on LinkedIn by the company Saturday.

“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met,” the company said in its post on LinkedIn.

The move comes a day after the company said that Byron had been placed on leave and the board of directors had launched a formal investigation into the jumbotron incident, which went viral. A company spokesman later confirmed in a statement to AP that it was Byron and Astronomer chief people officer Kristin Cabot in the video.

The short video clip shows Byron and Cabot as captured on the jumbotron at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, during a Coldplay concert on Wednesday.

Lead singer Chris Martin asked the cameras to scan the crowd for his “Jumbotron Song,” when he sings a few lines about the people the camera lands on.

“Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” he joked.

Internet sleuths identified the man as the chief executive officer of a U.S.-based company and the woman as its chief people officer.

Pete DeJoy, Astronomer’s cofounder and chief product officer, has been tapped as interim CEO while the company conducts a search for Byron’s successor.

Most concert venues warn attendees that they can be filmed

It’s easy to miss, but most concert venues have signs informing the audience that they could be filmed during the event. Look for them on the walls when you arrive and around the bar areas or toilets. It’s common practice especially when bands like to use performances for music videos or concert films.

The venue in this case, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, also has a privacy policy online which states: “When you visit our location or attend or participate in an event at our location, we may capture your image, voice and/or likeness, including through the use of CCTV cameras and/or when we film or photograph you in a public location.”

Once captured, a moment can be shared widely

“They probably would have got away with it if they hadn’t reacted,” said Alison Taylor, a clinical associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. And by the time the alleged identities emerged on social media, it hit a classic nerve around “leaders acting like the rules don’t apply to them,” she added.

Still, Taylor and others stress how quickly such a video can lead to an internet search to find the people involved — and note that it’s important to remember that such “doxing” isn’t just reserved for famous people. Beyond someone simply spotting a familiar face and spreading the word, technological advances, such as the rising adoption of artificial intelligence, have made it easier and faster overall to find just about anyone in a viral video today.

“It’s a little bit unsettling how easily we can be identified with biometrics, how our faces are online, how social media can track us — and how the internet has gone from being a place of interaction, to a gigantic surveillance system,” said Mary Angela Bock, an associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. “When you think about it, we are being surveilled by our social media. They’re tracking us in exchange for entertaining us.”

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AP Business Writer Wyatte Grantham-Philips contributed to this report from New York.