Daisy Ridley just left Instagram and it might have to do with her tribute to victims of gun violence

Star Wars hero Daisy Ridley’s Instagram has been a pretty dope celebrity account featuring posts of pictures with fans, videos of herself deadlifting 176 pounds (what), and powerful stories of what it’s like to live with endometriosis. Or at least it was a dope Instagram until yesterday, when she apparently deleted the account after posting about gun violence.

On Sunday night, Ridley attended the Teen Choice Awards, where teens who had been affected by gun violence in some way, including folks wounded in the Orlando Pulse shooting and Alton Sterling’s own son, took to the stage with a plea to #StopTheViolence. The Nerdy Bird reports that Ridley posted on Instagram about the heart-rending moment the next day—the same message was crossposted to Facebook, with a silly selfie.

Thinking about how lucky I am like……… Serious bit: as I sat in the audience yesterday tears were streaming down my face at the tribute to those that have been lost to gun violence. I didn’t get a great picture of the incredible group that came on stage but they were so brave. It was a true moment of togetherness. We must #stoptheviolence

It’s a pretty standard statement of sympathy, expressing condolences for people who have seen the worst of it. But apparently her accurate use of the term “gun violence” to describe people whose lives were changed by someone shooting a gun at them or a loved one was “offensive” to some of Instagram’s dumber inhabitants, according to the Nerdy Bird’s Jill Pantozzi. These trolls deemed Ridley and her post open season.

While Ridley has since deactivated her account, her Facebook post is still up, filled with comments that accuse her of getting political, employ Islamophobic rhetoric, and claim that guns don’t kill people (people do). Some are even calling her a hypocrite because a fictional character she portrayed in a blockbuster fictional movie used a fictional laser gun. Some choice cuts:

(Totally understand if you didn’t make it past that first one.)

It’s not certain if Ridley deactivated her account directly because of the comments. If that is the case, it wouldn’t be the first time a woman has left a social media platform after talking about gun violence. Two years ago, Chrissy Teigen took a break from Twitter when she received a huge backlash for tweeting “active shooting in Canada, or as we call it in America, Wednesday,” when a gunman opened fire near Ottawa’s Parliament building.

Here’s hoping Ridley returns to Instagram. We’ve reached out to Ridley’s publicists for a comment and will update if we hear back.

 
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