Billboard has been a subject of online outrage since they posted a tweet sexualizing Kim Kardashian's daughter, North West.
On Thursday morning, they posted a picture of the 2-year-old in Kardashian's arms sticking out her tongue while holding a toy and captioned it with "The apple doesn't fall from the tree" attaching a link to a video of North West shooing away the paparazzi. According to reports, that same photo was used by Billboard nine hours ago on their page with the caption: "North West is already pretty sassy (but in a cute way)."
Within seconds of posting the said tweet, the magazine was faced with an angry social media mob to the 2-year-old's defense. Many people, blasted the tweet calling Billboard "vile" and "problematic."
NY Daily News reported that it could possibly be the magazine's "allusion to a toddler performing a sexual act, perhaps in reference to Kardashian's infamous Ray J sex tape."
Even MSNBC contributor Janet Mock expresses her disgust to the distasteful post, calling it "appalling" and "shameful," adding that"an editor should never position such innuendo on the image of a child, regardless of her famous parent."
Other netizens also blasted Billboard by sending them tweets airing out their apparent disappointment to the company:
"Why not use an actual photo from the story that you're posting about @billboard? Extremely problematic."- @AirInDanYell
"Billboard really are garbage for that."- @JICHOdaDOG
"Slut-shaming women isn't okay. Slut-shaming baby girls is really not okay. I don't care who their mothers are."- @JamilSmith
"Delete this @billboard. This is absolutely disgusting. Garbage." - @mynameisjro
The post was deleted after two hours after publication. And Billboard did an apology later by tweeting:
"We apologize for the tweet involving North West. The caption was about her comments to paparazzi. The suggestion some see was not intended."
Still, there are some who did not buy the apology and continues to slam the magazine, saying that they should not deviate from their music related post:
"@billboard well maybe if you stick to MUSIC related posts only, you wouldn't have had that issue." - @RiRi_Lova00
As of press time, there have been no comments from Kim nor Kanye West regarding the issue.
