Milo Yiannopoulos is claiming censorship after New York Mayor Bill De Blasio asked New York University to reschedule a planned appearance due to security reasons.
Yiannopoulos was invited by liberal studies professor Michael Rectenwald to speak Wednesday in a classroom on the topic of politics and Halloween, but once word spread of the event, several students demanded that he not come to campus.
Rectenwald, in fact, said he invited Yiannopoulos in part because he knew it would get some people riled up. “I’m an anti-PC cultural and social libertarian,” he tweeted. “Remember my views, which are in the public sphere, when people try to tar me with other, disgusting and inapt labels. I’m having Milo in my class not as an endorsement of his views, but to challenge the censorship of the university.”
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Rectenwald posted on his Facebook account later on Tuesday: “I was merely trying to arrange a cultural exchange between my class and a harmless person from the center-right.”
De Blasio’s office was not available for comment, but an NYU representative says that the invitation wasn’t rescinded, just that the appearance needed to be postponed after police deemed it risky. “De Blasio today requested that NYU postpone and reschedule the classroom appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos for public safety reasons in light of the nearby Halloween parades and NYPD assessments of risk,” the university representative said. “Given the importance of close coordination between NYU’s Public Safety personnel and the NYPD to ensuring safety, the University agreed to the postponement.”
But Yiannopoulos, who has been banned from Twitter and other platforms after accusations of hate speech and racism, says his invitation was canceled and not rescheduled. “As of today, I am without question the most censored man in America,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “The entire city of New York is terrified of one gay man stepping out of line and calling out the left as the intolerant, censorious crybabies they are.”
Yiannopoulos said he plans on delivering his talk on time at 3:30 p.m. from his New York hotel room and streaming it live.
