Playboy has officially “canceled” former porn star and content creator Mia Khalifa following a controversial series of comments she made on social media. The comments, which sparked outrage online, saw Khalifa openly supporting the terror attacks carried out by Hamas in Israel, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Israelis.
In her tweets, Khalifa made light of the ongoing conflict, making jokes about a ‘Zionist apartheid regime’ and referring to guerrilla fighters in ‘fake Gucci shirts.’ Her page on the Playboy website now displays a ‘Not Found’ graphic, signifying the end of her association with the adult magazine.
Playboy released an official statement, stating that Khalifa would no longer be creating content for their Centerfold platform, which she had joined in February 2022. The statement emphasized their commitment to free expression and constructive political debate but stressed a zero-tolerance policy for hate speech. Playboy condemned Khalifa’s comments as “disgusting and reprehensible” and expressed the expectation that she understands the consequences of her words and actions.
Centerfold, created by Playboy to allow models to interact directly with fans and sell content, initially welcomed Khalifa as an important addition to their community due to her “fearless, direct, thought-provoking, and fun-loving approach to life and her career,” as stated by PLBY Group CEO Ben Kohn at the time of her joining.
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Khalifa had openly voiced support for Hamas and their actions, almost live-tweeting her observations when the war broke out over the weekend and at some point even urged the aggressors to film horizontally presumably to allow for better viewing of the violence.
Despite Khalifa’s initial defense, where she claimed her statements were not meant to incite violence but to support freedom fighters, her posts on the subject attracted significant attention and backlash from various quarters.
Khalifa was also fired publicly and seemingly on-the-spot by Todd Shapiro, CEO of the Netherlands-based psilocybin company Red Light Holland (CSE: TRIP). Shapiro called Khalifa’s actions “beyond disgusting.”
Khalifa joined Red Light Holland in April as an advisor. She was hired to help the company with social media and to develop a female-focused mushroom brand. While Khalifa has not addressed Playboy’s reaction to her statements, the former pornstar has pinned her response to Shapiro.
In the response, Khalifa mocked Shapiro and also said that she urged Hamas to film the attacks horizontally because she just wanted to “make sure there’s 4k footage of my people breaking down the walls of the open air prison they’ve been forced out of their homes and into so we have good options for the history books that write about how they freed themselves from apartheid.”
As of this writing, CNN reports that at least 900 people have died in Israel and more than 680 Palestinians have been killed since the conflict erupted on Saturday when Hamas launched a devastating surprise attack on Israel. Hamas is also holding about 100 to 150 hostages in Gaza, made up of Israeli army officers and civilians.
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