Milo Yiannopoulos Praises Bombs Sent to Democrats, Instagram Wouldn’t Remove the Post

WTF, Instagram? The social media platform has long been known to make questionable decisions while enforcing its “community standards,” from queer art and photography being censored for no good reason to its “nipple policy” that does little more than reinforce tired gender norms. (After all, it’s owned by Facebook, which also has a shoddy record when it comes to issues affecting LGBTQ people.) But this latest incident is flat-out insane: a Milo Yiannaopoulos Instagram post has praised the several bombs mailed to liberal politicians and personalities this week, and the platform refused to remove it.

Despite multiple people reporting the Milo Yiannopoulos Instagram post as blatant hate speech (not to mention that it wishes death on people), Instagram responded that the post “does not violate our Community Guidelines.”

That’s rich, huh?

Just this afternoon, Yiannopoulos — a disgraced alt-right douchebag who was basically shunned by powerful conservatives after comments supporting child rape, working with white supremacists, plagiarizing Tori Amos and throwing the most sad birthday party ever — posted this: “Just catching up with news of all these pipe bombs. Disgusting and sad (that they didn’t go off …).”

The Yiannopoulos Instagram post also says he wishes American news outlet The Daily Beast had received a bomb.

Instagram finally removed the post after several hours, but the Yiannopoulos Instagram profile — where he continues to spout hatred, disingenuous lies and fake news to nearly 400,000 loyal minions — remains live.

The same post was made on Facebook, which also refused to remove it initially, though it appears to have disappeared when the Instagram post did.

Moderation on the Instagram and Facebook platforms has reached peak ridiculousness under the Trump administration, which has stoked racism, anti-gay hate and nastiness across social media. These platforms can no longer be considered safe spaces for queer people — or anyone — and even the safeguards these platforms have imposed on themselves and users, known as “community guidelines,” are often of no help because they’re enforced shoddily.

Be better, Instagram and Facebook, because right now you’re just shameful.