Huffington Post uses Zayn Malik picture to illustrate ISIS news story
The Huffington Post has apologised on Twitter after it posted an image of singer Zayn Malik alongside a link to a story about ISIS.
The former One Direction star's picture was accompanied by text that read: 'Why ISIS wants to destroy the 'gray zone of coexistence''.
Centering around the idea that ISIS' main motive is to create discord between Muslims living in the West and their non-Muslim neighbors, the article in question seemingly points to Malik as "a more relatable face of the 'gray zone of coexistence'".
The newspaper has since deleted the Tweet and apologised for the original photo, saying: "Zayn Malik is mentioned in the story, but is obviously not part of ISIS."
We apologize for the original image here. Zayn Malik is mentioned in the story, but is obviously not part of ISIS. pic.twitter.com/CzEaDwxs3y
— Huffington Post (@HuffingtonPost) November 20, 2015
Despite the apology readers (and One Directioners) vented their frustrations online calling the site "unprofessional".
@HuffingtonPost Yes, but just putting his image in this context damages him. It's happened before, don't perpetuate it. Do better. — ZayntanPayne (@Zenrapture) November 20, 2015just delete the damn article and wipe any existence of it off your website. @HuffingtonPost pic.twitter.com/r4rnpNYGUE
— katie (@kaatieeee_x3) November 20, 2015
Yes, @huffingtonpost, retweeting very same headline, with the very same image, is exactly what was needed. Try again. And mean it this time. — Adriana Kilam (@Tanhi_San) November 20, 2015@HuffingtonPost It's cool how you have deleted and apologized for it, but the screenshot still makes for great #shareable #content
— David A. Graham (@GrahamDavidA) November 20, 2015
@HuffingtonPost how is this even a little bit okay? How does this get past multiple levels of editors???? — Elycia ♕ (@ekrazy3) November 20, 2015