Milo Yiannopoulos Loses Book Contract Over Pedophilia Comments, Fans Vow Support
Less than 24 hours since Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos got disinvited from the Conservative Political Action Conference, rabid fans are vowing to keep supporting him and buying his book canceled by Simon & Schuster over his controversial comments on pedophilia.
In a Monday statement, Simon & Schuster spokesperson Adam Rothberg said: "After careful consideration @simonschuster and its @threshold_books have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos."
The 32-year-old British provocateur shared the news with his nearly 2 million followers on Facebook in two posts that collectively read: "They canceled my book. I've gone through worse. This will not defeat me."
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"Print it out on 8.5x11 copy paper and staple that b*tch together, I'll buy a copy," Rob Goins replied to Yiannopoulos in a comment that had been liked nearly 25,000 times as of Tuesday morning. Defiant fans are currently working to ensure that the comment remains the most popular response to the cancelation of Yiannopoulos' book contract.
His book "Dangerous," described by The New York Times as a free-speech manifesto and memoir was sold to Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint within Simon & Schuster in December. It had shot to the top of Amazon's best-seller list, based on advance orders. It is no longer available on Amazon.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who has lived at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012, where he has avoided extradition to Sweden over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women, decried the cancelation of Yiannopoulos's book as censorship in a series of tweets on Tuesday morning.
He also suggested they were setting a bad precedent that can be exploited by controversial U.S. President Donald Trump.
"US 'liberals' today celebrate the censorship of right-wing UK provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos over teen sex quote," he began.
"Lauding censorship, CIA, neo-Macarthyism & espionage act. What could possibly go wrong with a populist authoritarian handed this precedent?" he asked. "Issue is 'liberals' cheering on a clearly illiberal act -- book censorship -- for political reasons with morality as cover."
The Times reported that Yiannopoulos had been paid an advance of $250,000 and "Dangerous" had sold just under 50,000 copies, according to his literary agent, Thomas Flannery Jr.
It further noted that this latest controversy wasn't the first time that Simon & Schuster had been criticized for their relationship with Yiannopoulos. Author Roxane Gay had previously withdrawn her contract for a book with a Simon & Schuster imprint in protest but they stood by him anyway.
In a blog post reacting to the publisher, Gay said the decision to drop Yiannopoulos wasn't an attempt on the part of the company to do the right thing. It was just business, she said.
"When his comments about pedophilia/pederasty came to light, Simon & Schuster realized it would cost them more money to do business with Milo than he could earn for them. They did not finally 'do the right thing' and now we know where their threshold, pun intended, lies," she wrote.
"They were fine with his racist and xenophobic and sexist ideologies. They were fine with his transphobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. They were fine with how he encourages his followers to harass women and people of color and transgender people online. Let me assure you, as someone who endured a bit of that harassment, it is breathtaking in its scope, intensity, and cruelty but hey, we must protect the freedom of speech," she quipped.
In a further reaction to the Times, Yiannopoulos said: "The people whose views, concerns and fears I am articulating do not sip white wine and munch canapés in gilded salons. And they will not be defeated by the cocktail set running New York publishing. Nor will I."
Yiannopoulos, while explaining that he could have been more careful with his words in discussing the issue of pedophilia has continued to defend his comments as British humor.
"I'm partly to blame. My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous. But I understand that my usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, worse, 'advocacy.' I deeply regret that. People deal with things from their past in different ways," he said.
"I do not believe sex with 13-year-olds is okay. When I mentioned the number 13, I was talking about the age I lost my own virginity. I shouldn't have used the word 'boy' — which gay men often do to describe young men of consenting age — instead of 'young man.' That was an error. I am certainly guilty of imprecise language, which I regret," he added.
Alex Marlow, Breitbart's editor-in-chief, said on Breitbart's Sirius XM radio network Tuesday that Yiannopoulos's comments were "not defensible" but did not reveal whether any further action would be taken against him.
Yiannopoulos is expected to answer questions about the controversy at a press conference in New York City Tuesday at 3 p.m.
