Playboy has cut Mia Khalifa, a Lebanese-American media personality and former porn star, from its roster of OnlyFans-like creators after she shared comments “celebrating” Hamas’ deadly attacks on Israel, according to the company.
“We are writing today to let you know of our decision to terminate Playboy’s relationship with Mia Khalifa, including deleting Mia’s Playboy channel on our creator platform,” the company wrote in a message to users (via Daily Mail). “Over the past few days, Mia has made disgusting and reprehensible comments celebrating Hamas’ attacks on Israel and the murder of innocent men, women and children. At Playboy, we encourage free expression and constructive political debate, but we have a zero tolerance policy for hate speech. We expect Mia to understand that her words and actions have consequences.”
As of Tuesday, Khalifa’s page is no longer available on Playboy’s website.
Among her posts on X (aka Twitter) following Hamas’ attacks on Israelis, Khalifa wrote, “If you can look at the situation in Palestine and not be on the side of Palestinians, then you are on the wrong side of apartheid and history will show that in time.” She also posted, “I can’t believe the Zionist apartheid regime is being brought down by guerrilla fighters in fake Gucci shirts — the biopics of these moments better reflect that.” Khalifa also wrote on the platform, “Can someone please tell the freedom fighters in Palestine to flip their phones and film horizontal.”
On Sunday, Oct. 8, Khalifa posted, “I just wanna make sure there’s 4k footage of my people breaking down the walls of the open air prison they’ve been forced out of their homes and into so we have good options for the history books that write about how how they freed themselves from apartheid.”
L.A.-based PLBY Group describes itself as “a global pleasure and leisure company connecting consumers with products, content and experiences.” Its flagship consumer brand, Playboy, ended its print edition in March 2020 and earlier this year relaunched the magazine as a digital offshoot of its Centerfold platform, which lets individual creators charge a monthly fee for access to exclusive content, similar to OnlyFans.
In 2011, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner took Playboy Enterprises private after 40 years as a publicly traded company. (Hefner died in 2017.) PLBY Group went public in February 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and is currently led by CEO Ben Kohn.
Kohn, in announcing Playboy’s partnership with Khalifa in February 2022, had said, “Mia’s fearless, direct, thought-provoking and fun-loving approach to life and her career make her an important addition to our Centerfold community. Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of our Playboy legacy, and Centerfold is all about empowering creators like Mia to express themselves in a safe, accepting environment.”
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