Robert J. O’Neill, a former Navy SEAL Team Six member who claims to have shot Osama bin Laden, has been banned from Delta airlines after tweeting out an anti-mask photo.
O’Neill posted the selfie photo of himself without a mask to Twitter Wednesday along with the message: “I’m not a pussy.”
After posting the photo, some social media users complained that his comments were targeted at the man behind him in the photo who was wearing a US Marine Corps hat and a mask.
O’Neill’s wife then deleted the photo and O’Neill posted several tweets addressing the complaints.
“This was not a dig at the Marine behind me. I love Marines…,” O’Neill wrote in one tweet.
Twitter users called on Delta to ban O’Neill from the airline.
O’Neill added that the tweet was intended as a joke and that he does wear a mask which he says was in his lap when the photo was taken.
But a day after the photo was posted, Delta banned O’Neill and issuing a statement that he’s no longer welcome aboard:
“Part of every customer’s commitment prior to traveling on Delta is the requirement to acknowledge our updated travel policies, which includes wearing a mask. Failure to comply with our mask-wearing mandate can result in losing the ability to fly Delta in the future,” Delta said in a statement.
O’Neill’s experience is the latest of several controversies that has erupted online around the topic of wearing masks.
Last week, the Department of Natural Resources faced criticism after it told employees to wear masks on Zoom calls, even when they’re at home alone.
And over the last month, several people have faced sanctions from their employers after posting anti-mask content including a school principal who was pressured into resigning after posting a meme comparing mask wearers to Holocaust victims, a nurse who was investigated after anti-mask comments on Facebook, and police officers who were investigated after posing with an anti-mask campaigner on Instagram.
