Drew Angerer
Publishing company Simon & Schuster has cancelled a book deal for alt-right personality Milo Yiannopoulos, following the circulation of a video in which he condoned pedophilia. "After careful consideration @simonschuster and its @threshold_books have cancelled publication of Dangerous by Milo Yiannopoulos," the company's spokesperson Adam Rothberg tweeted on Monday. Yiannopoulos confirmed the cancellation on Facebook, writing "they cancelled my book."
The company had previously defended its decision to offer Yiannopoulos a $250,000 book deal, saying that the book would not contain the hate speech for which Yiannopoulos is famous. But after a video of Yiannopoulos condoning sexual relationships between boys and older men went viral Sunday night, the publishing company faced renewed pressure to drop the deal. Earlier Monday, the Conservative Political Action Conference organizers announced that they had rescinded Yiannopoulos's invitation to speak at the conference. Yiannopoulos has since defended himself, saying he does not support pedophilia, and that his statements were taken out of context.
"I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors. I am horrified by pedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career as a journalist to exposing child abusers,” Yiannopoulos said in an interview with The Daily Beast. "My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted on this subject, no matter how outrageous, but I understand that my usual blend of sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy.”