Yahoo! has removed violent, anti-gay
comments against Adam Lambert posted in response to an interview with
the singer.
Media advocacy and anti-defamation
group the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) on
Thursday issued a statement commending Yahoo! for acting quickly.
“Young music fans should be able to
interact and comment on sites without seeing violent, hateful
comments directed at LGBT people,” Allison Palmer, director of
digital initiatives at GLAAD, said in a statement. “Yahoo! did the
right thing by taking immediate action to enforce their Terms of
Service, setting an important example for other leading websites and
tech companies.”
One commenter wrote, “It would make
my day if someone was to do to [Lambert] what those men did to
Matthew Shepard,” in reference to the 21-year-old University of
Wyoming student who was brutally beaten and left for dead near
Laramie, Wyoming in 1998.
Yahoo! stated that the company “does
not allow content that promotes hatred against users or groups of
users. Protected categories include, but are not limited to race,
ethnicity, age, gender, disability, sexual orientation and gender
identity. Yahoo! takes issues like this very seriously. We provide
methods for users to report content that they believe to be abusive.
Yahoo! reviews these reports and takes appropriate action according
to our Terms of Service.”