Yahoo News Milo Yiannopoulos autobiography cancelled by publisher after outrage over child abuse comments
Simon & Schuster has cancelled publication of a book by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos after edited video clips purporting to show him discussing sex between "young boys" and older men set social media alight.
"They have cancelled my book," Mr Yiannopoulos wrote in a Facebook post on Monday night. "I've gone through worse. This will not defeat me."
The book is the third that Mr Yiannopoulos has announced that has not eventuated. It was reportedly secured with a US$250,000 (£200,000) advance.
He has claimed he is the victim of a conspiracy by centrist Republicans to discredit him.
The Breitbart news editor, who was permanently banned from Twitter in July 2016 for instigating abuse of the Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones, purportedly said in a video clip “we get hung up on this sort of child abuse stuff”.
Mr Yiannopoulos addressed the scandal with a message entitled "a note to idiots" on his official Facebook page: "I do not support pedophilia. Period. It is a vile and disgusting crime, perhaps the very worst," he wrote.
"There are selectively edited videos doing the rounds, as part of a co-ordinated effort to discredit me from establishment Republicans, that suggest I am soft on the subject."
Mr Yiannopoulos was invited to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of Republican activities, but the American Conservative Union has rescinded his invitation over the video.
Employees at Breitbart in the US have also threatened to quit if he is not fired, it has been reported.
He was bombarded with criticism Republican activists. Steve Deace, a conservative radio show host tweeted: "If you mention Jesus in your bio but are defending Milo, please tell us where you go to church so the rest of us know not to go there."
The Reagan Battalion, the conservative blog published this weekend a compilation of videos clips discussing Jews, sexual consent, statutory rape, child abuse and homosexuality.
On Monday the group published another clip of Mr Yiannopolous that purports to show him claiming that most claims of sexual assault on university campus' are fraudulent and that if women should not overdramatise being touched up.
"If someone touched your tits get over it; it's not a big deal," he 'allegedly' said.
In the first video, published over the weekend, he is shown saying that the age of sexual consent is "probably about OK" but that there are "certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them, people who are sexually active younger".
He detailed a relationship he had with a Catholic priest when he was a young teenager. He also appeared to defend the "coming of age" relationships in which "older men" help "younger boys discover who they are".
The interviewer challenged him that he sounded as if he were describing sexual molestation.
The video purports to show Mr Yiannopoulos responding that he was "grateful" for his interactions with the priest, and ‘quipping’ that it had helped him become talented at oral sex.
It also purports to show him saying that "pedophilia is not a sexual attraction to someone who is 13-years-old who is sexually mature".
He said this "policing of culture", this "arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent" is one of the ideas he hates "the left".
In a statement posted on Facebook on Sunday night Mr Yiannopolous said: If it somehow comes across (through my own sloppy phrasing or through deceptive editing) that I meant any of the ugly things alleged, let me set the record straight: I am completely disgusted by the abuse of children.
