The 1975's Matt Healy has deactivated his Twitter account after being criticized by fans for promoting his music while speaking about Black Lives Matter and the killing of George Floyd.
"If you truly believe that 'ALL LIVES MATTER' you need to stop facilitating the end of black ones," he tweeted, along with a link to The 1975's "Love It If We Made It," per Metro.
Healy has often spoken out about politics, and while the song contains lyrics about the death of Black men and mass incarceration, many felt his decision to direct people to a white man's voice was inappropriate, and he swiftly deleted the tweet. He then reportedly 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."
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He then tweeted his original message again, followed by the link to the "Love It If We Made It" music video, before deleting his account, according to Metro. The singer did not immediately respond to Refinery29's request for comment.
His decision to deactivate only angered fans more.
matty healy is the biggest performative activist I've ever seen that man's so insensitive to actual real world struggles but wants to be oppressed as a white liberal man stfu
— percy TW (@lgbtfineline) May 28, 2020
matty healy's response to the murder of a black man was 1) tweeting a link to his own song 2) deleting the link to his song because it was insensitive and people were upset 3) tweeting the link to his song again 4) stropping and deactivating his entire account. what an ally
— luke (@ghoulets) May 28, 2020
Matty healy a white male promoting his own work to profit off a movement about black people is not defendable and if you are white and defending him you have no argument in the situation it’s really that simple
— ᶜᵃˡˡᵘᵐ | BLM (@callumismynamee) May 28, 2020
However, he has continued to post passionately on Instagram about the issue, directing fans to a Change.org petition demanding justice for Floyd.
"Now was that so hard," one fan commented.