Earlier today, The Huffington Post ran a piece about the Islamic State group's mission to destroy the so-called "'gray zone of coexistence' between Muslims residing in the West and their non-Muslim neighbors." The article, accompanying the outlet's weekly So That Happened podcast, ran into a snag, though.
It wasn't an issue of the post's content. Rather, the problem was that a photo of former One Direction member Zayn Malik ran alongside the piece. No, seriously. See for yourself:
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, 2015At this point, any mention of Malik has been scraped from the story. But even when his name did appear in it however tangentially, we're guessing that the decision to feature an image of his face had something to do with the click-factor. Clearly, it was a major faux pas.
The site has since removed the picture and apologized. But not before the entire internet face-palmed. So that happened, indeed.
In other news: Here is some actual news.
OPENER IMAGE: Michael Buckner/Variety/REX Shutterstock.