Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos had cheered the idea of journalists being murdered just days before a gunman shot dead five people at Maryland’s Capital Gazette newspaper.
But in the hours after the deadly newsroom shooting on Thursday, Yiannopoulos insisted that he was only joking as businesses like PayPal and Venmo took action by banning him from their services.
Yiannopoulos made the comments after being asked to comment on two different stories being written by The Daily Beast and The Observer earlier this week.
‘I can’t wait for vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight,’ he responded to both outlets.
Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos had cheered the idea of journalists being murdered just days before a gunman shot dead five people at Maryland’s Capital Gazette newspaper on Thursday
When asked by the Observer to elaborate about what had upset them about their story, about a popular GOP watering hole, Yiannopoulos replied that it was his ‘standard response to a request for comment’.
The Daily Beast’s story was about the UK Independence Party.
After the shooting broke out in Maryland’s capital on Thursday afternoon, many on Twitter pointed out that the tragedy came just two days after the alt-right poster boy’s comments were published.
Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, informed Yiannopoulos on Thursday that he was being from its service.
An email to Yiannopoulos said:’Hi Milo, while we encourage the use of Venmo, we must ensure all users abide by our User Agreement. After reviewing your account, we have found that your actions and activity have been in violation of this agreement.
Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, informed Yiannopoulos on Thursday that he was being from its service. Milo shared a grab of the email in his Instagram
A man firing a shotgun killed four journalists and a staffer at Maryland’s capital newspaper on Thursday, then was swiftly taken into custody by police who rushed into the building
‘As a result, your account has been permanently deactivated and we regret to inform you that we can no longer offer you the Venmo service. We do not make these decisions lightly, and when we do, it is because safety is Venmo’s number one priority.’
In a statement of his own on Facebook, Yiannopoulos insisted that it was just a joke.
‘You’re about to see a raft of news stories claiming that I am responsible for inspiring the deaths of journalists,’ Yiannopoulos said. ‘The truth, as always, is the opposite of what the media tells you.
‘I sent a troll about ‘vigilante death squads’ as a *private* response to a few hostile journalists who were asking me for comment, basically as a way of saying, ‘F—k off.’ They then published it.
‘Amazed they were pretending to take my joke as a ‘threat,’ I reposted these stories on Instagram to mock them – and to make it clear that I wasn’t being serious.’