Daily Beast roundly condemned for outing Olympic athletes for no apparent reason; And it's gone

When Slate is shaming The Daily Beast for one of its stories, it’s clear someone must have done something stupid.

How the Daily Beast violated queer athletes, gay space, & journo ethics in one piece: https://t.co/KVO0oOYQOo pic.twitter.com/X2FGMjOGh9

— Slate (@Slate) August 11, 2016

An article published in The Daily Beast Thursday, in which (straight) writer Nico Hines described his walk around the Olympic Village while monitoring the gay hookup app Grindr and documented his offers of “dates,” would have been universally slammed as homophobic had a conservative site published it, but even The Daily Beast is feeling the heat.

This Daily Beast article outs gay Olympians on Grindr, then mocks them. https://t.co/5EI9gnQ4Qh via @FutureTenseNow

— Mohammed Abbas (@MohammedAbbas79) August 11, 2016

Slate notes that the “exceeding creepy” piece, which has since been edited to remove some personally identifying information, could prove dangerous, considering that many nations represented at the Olympics consider homosexuality a crime.

Here’s Tonga’s Amini Founa:

As an out gay athlete from a country that is still very homophobic, @thedailybeast ought to be ashamed #deplorable https://t.co/qzS9rDFJwx

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

@NicoHines You fucking disgust me. Do you realize how many people's lives you just ruined without any good reason but clickbait journalism?

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

@NicoHines Some of these people you just outed are my FRIENDS. With family and lives that are forever going to be affected by this

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

https://twitter.com/AminiFonua/status/763836497917317120

https://twitter.com/AminiFonua/status/763836796253966337

Imagine the one space you can feel safe, the one space you're able to be yourself, ruined by a straight person who thinks it's all a joke?

— Amini Fonua (@AminiFonua) August 11, 2016

Daily Beast editor in chief John Avlon amended a lengthy note to Hines’ piece which is actually pretty humorous at points: “The concept for the piece was to see how dating and hook-up apps were being used in Rio by athletes,” he notes. “It just so happened that Nico had many more responses on Grindr than apps that cater mostly to straight people, and so he wrote about that.”

Alternate headline: Straight reporter can’t find date in Rio, pretends to be gay.

.@thedailybeast if you want a shred of respect back as a credible website, fire @NicoHines immediately

— rachel ✌?️ (@homesickblues37) August 11, 2016

You have a pride flag in your header, take it down. You are not an ally, no ally would out others. @thedailybeast

— Hannah Montana (@Patrickrazzi) August 11, 2016

Can we all agree to boycott @thedailybeast? LGBT+ people aren't here to provide you with 'content' for your attempts at journalism.

— Hannah Armstrong (@HJP_Armstrong) August 11, 2016

There’s been nothing but Twitter silence from @NicoHines Thursday.

Update:

And … it’s gone.

Today, The Daily Beast took an unprecedented but necessary step: We are removing an article from our site, “The Other Olympic Sport In Rio: Swiping.”

…

Today we did not uphold a deep set of The Daily Beast’s values. These values—which include standing up to bullies and bigots, and specifically being a proudly, steadfastly supportive voice for LGBT people all over the world—are core to our commitment to journalism and to our commitment to serving our readers.

…

We were wrong. We will do better.

Transgender model Gigi Gorgeous tried to enter Dubai and she's the only one surprised by what happened next https://t.co/TUEza8unPE

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 11, 2016