📢 YOU CHOSE: PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE

You go live.

Eyes puffy.
Voice cracking.
You say everything right:

"My accounts were hacked."
"This does not represent who I am."
"I am deeply sorry to anyone hurt."

Then you pause.

You wait.

But the internet doesn't.

Comments flood in:

• “Sure, blame the ‘hackers.’”
• “If that’s not who you are, why were those words even typed?”
• “Cancel them harder.”

#isthisyou trends.

People pull old jokes, taken out of context.
Someone finds your college blog.
A podcast you forgot about.
That one meme you reshared in 2014.

Suddenly, your apology is its own scandal.

Then your boss calls:

"We’re letting you go. Can’t risk the PR."

And the hacker?

They post one last thing:

“Apology accepted... by no one.”

Do you:

1. Change your name and vanish from the internet
2. Go scorched-earth, and expose everyone you have dirt on