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Milo Yiannopoulos resigns from Breitbart as fallout from child sex abuse comments grows

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By Lisa Lacy, n/a

February 21, 2017 | 3 min read

Breitbart tech editor – and alt-right darling – Milo Yiannopoulos announced his resignation from the conservative news organization at a press conference in New York on Tuesday (21 February).

Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from Breitbart.

Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from Breitbart.

The move comes after a video posted over the weekend revealed Yiannopoulos making statements that appeared to condone pedophilia.

In a statement on Facebook on Tuesday, Yiannopoulos wrote, “My 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.’”

But, by then, the damage had been done. On Monday, Simon & Schuster canceled Yiannopoulous’s $250,000 book deal. He also lost an invitation to speak at the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference.

“I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately. This decision is mine alone,” Yiannopoulos said in a statement. “When your friends have done right by you, you do right by them. For me, now, that means stepping aside so my colleagues at Breitbart can get back to the great work they do.”

A Breitbart statement released after the conference added, “Milo Yiannopoulos’s bold voice has sparked much-needed debate on important cultural topics confronting universities, the LGBTQ community, the press and the tech industry. Milo notified us this morning of his decision to resign as editor of Breitbart Tech and we accepted his resignation.”

Yiannopoulos is no stranger to controversy. The University of California Berkeley canceled a Yiannopoulos speech earlier this month after violent protests broke out. He was also banned from Twitter last year after he encouraged followers to harass Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones.

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