Billboard Apologizes for ‘Sexualizing’ Kim and Kanye’s Toddler

Twitter/Billboard
Twitter/Billboard
Kelli Serio

Billboard has issued an apology after being accused of sexualizing Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s 20-month-old daughter, North West, on Twitter.

The music publication drew the ire of social media on Friday after the official Billboard Twitter account posted a photo of Kardashian and North, which was captioned, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree…”

The problem: the image was of the toddler licking a red lollipop, which some people interpreted as a reference to Kardashian’s viral sex tape, in which she performed oral sex on former boyfriend, singer Ray J. The video has been credited with putting Kardashian on the map.

“Wtf was that tweet about Billboard? Toddler blow job jokes…seriously??” said one social media user.

Others chimed in:

After becoming aware of the critical tweets, the publication attempted to clarify the intent of the post.

“The caption was about her comments to paparazzi. The suggestion some see was not intended,” wrote Billboard after it deleted the original tweet, which was apparently a reference to West’s hatred of being photographed in public:

Billboard is still facing backlash, despite the apology.

“Don’t throw a rock and then hide your hand. Or tell people it was a rock b/c that’s what they ‘perceived’ it to be,” wrote another user via Yahoo. “If the backlash wouldn’t have been so swift and strong, you would’ve left that sexually suggestive tweet about a toddler up. Y’all thought it was funny. Stand behind it and deal with the fire you started,” the user continued.

Check out more angry tweets below:

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