Debbie Hickey/Getty ImagesThe 1975 frontman Matty Healy has deactivated his Twitter account after being criticized for using the death of George Floyd to promote his own music.
Floyd, a black man, died last Monday night after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck as Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. The four officers involved in the incident have since been fired, with widespread rioting ongoing in reaction to Floyd’s death.
According to screen shots taken of the now deleted tweets, Healy first tweeted, “If you truly believe that ‘ALL LIVES MATTER,’ you need to stop facilitating the end of black ones,” along with a link to the video for The 1975’s song “Love It If We Made It.”
After receiving backlash, Healy deleted that tweet, and wrote, “Sorry I did not link my song in that tweet to make it about me it’s just that the song is literally about this disgusting situation and speaks more eloquently than I can on Twitter.”
Healy then repeated the statement from his original tweet, but also linked to “Love It If We Made It” again in a separate post. He’s since left Twitter altogether — his page now simply reads, “This account doesn’t exist.”
Healy’s Instagram is still active, and he posted the same comment he made in his first tweet, only instead of a link to “Love It If We Made It,” he shared a link to Change.org petition demanding that charges be filed against the police officers involved in Floyd’s death. He also shared a photo of the officer who pinned his knee onto Floyd’s neck with the caption, “MURDER.”
By Josh Johnson
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