Actor Simu Liu is being called out for some problematic social media posts he allegedly made in the past.
Liu, who stars as Marvel’s newest superhero in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, has since deleted the tweets in question, as well as a suspected Reddit account after fans suggested they were centered around anti-Blackness, misogyny, and pedophilia.
Screenshots of a former tweet suggest Liu was comparing rapper Nicki Minaj to a homeless man.
Liu was accused of being behind a Reddit account called “nippedinthebud.” The same account was seen using his real name while in a comment under a thread about Kim’s Convenience, the hit Canadian TV show he formerly starred on.
The recently deleted Reddit account was seen commenting in 2014 about frustrations with women not being good at volleyball.
Lastly, the same suspected Reddit account was found in 2015 commenting under a thread about pedophilia, in which the user identifies as a Canadian actor compared pedophilia to being gay. In one of the offensive posts, he shared his experience of doing research for his role as a pedophile and in the end, he grew sympathetic with anyone “who is born with those urges.”
In another post, he suggested that pedophilia existed on the “spectrum” like homosexuality. “Anybody who jerks off to pictures of an 18 y/o and turns around and says all pedophiles ought to be killed is a fucking hypocrite IMO,” so the Canadian star allegedly penned.
The Reddit account has since been deleted and all posts were scrapped, but screenshots of his posts have been circulating online, enough for Simu to earn a lot of backlash.
This is why you should be wary of what you post on the internet because once you hit it big, someone is going to unearth a dastardly deed you committed in the past, just because.
Simu himself seems to have responded to this controversy — linking back to a 2019 tweet of his in which he says he’s only advocated for positivity in his life, and to direct any anger at him to “the system that did this to ALL of us.” What?
So, he didn’t deny that he posted some terrible things and also doesn’t go on to explain why he did so.
In a reply to another tweet regarding the controversy, Liu tweeted (which has since been deleted):
“Just a reminder that I do not ever EVER advocate for anything other than positivity,” he claimed. “Positive cultural pride, positive iterations of Asian masculinity and femininity – that means WE DON’T PUT EACH OTHER DOWN.”
In a reply to another tweet regarding the controversy, Liu tweeted: “Twitter is a slanderous place sometimes, and it feels good to shut down trolls and bad faith actors who want to drag your name through the mud.”
What does that have to do with comparing homosexuality to pedophilia? Do better, Simu.
