Rap Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam resigned from the company after making a series of misogynistic and insensitive annotations to the manifesto of Elliot Rodger, the young man who killed six people in a shooting spree earlier this week.
The social network, which lets users comment on rap lyrics and current events, uploaded Rodger’s 141-page manifesto to News Genius on Sunday, permitting users to read and comment on a document that provides real insight into the mind of a troubled young man.
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Moghadam used the document as an opportunity to joke around, twice noting that certain sentences were “written beautifully.” He also “guessed” that Rodgers’ sister is “smokin hot,” a particularly foolish thing to write given Rodgers’ very complicated relationship with women in general. (You can see the annotations here.)
“Mahbod Moghadam, one of my co-founders, annotated the piece with annotations that not only didn’t attempt to enhance anyone’s understanding of the text, but went beyond that into gleeful insensitivity and misogyny,” Rap Genius CEO Tom Lehman wrote in a blog post Monday.
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Lehman added that any member of the RapGenius community would have run into problems, and that Moghadam is no longer fit to have a leadership position. He will leave the company and has surrendered his spot on the company’s board.