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Employees of media company call for its own Blue Lives Matter website to be shut down, deplatformed
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Employees of media company call for its own Blue Lives Matter website to be shut down, deplatformed: Website is a 'disgrace'

Setting a precedent

Employees at Maven Media Brands — the company that owns Maxim and Sports Illustrated — are demanding one of their brand's websites, Defense Maven, be shuttered amid the George Floyd protests.

Defense Maven is a highly popular pro-law enforcement website also known as Blue Lives Matter.

What are the details?

According to a Monday New York Post report, the call came during a Friday staff meeting on site revenue.

The company announced a 15% salary cut to offset advertising losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Daily Beast.

After the company announced the mandatory cut, many employees railed against the existence of Blue Lives Matter and called the website a "disgrace," with a comments section rife with "racist" remarks.

"Blue Lives Matters' comment sections are full of people calling for the extermination of people like me," another employee reportedly said.

Defense Maven has been a part of Maven Media Brands' portfolio since 2017.

Maven Media Brands' CEO and founder James Heckman, however, insisted that the company's mission remains — which is to cultivate open dialogue and "break down ideological bubbles with different perspectives," the Post reported.

According to the Daily Beast's report, at least one staffer responded, "We are not asking for a wide-ranging conversation about diversity right now. We're asking for you to take that site down and explain why it is still up."

Despite his insistence upon free speech, Heckman reportedly told staffers in a second meeting that he planned to ask the company's board to remove the Blue Lives Matter website.

"I think this for sure is something we have to do," Heckman said, according to the Daily Beast's reporting. "I'm going to make that recommendation to the board, I'm sure the board will be supportive."

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