Fans of former One Direction member Liam Payne slammed the American celebrity news website TMZ for publishing photos of the singer's body following his tragic death in Argentina.
TMZ had allegedly posted pictures of Liam Payne's dead body. The images showed the late singer's arm and waist with his tattoos visible, helping the website to confirm the reports of his death.
Liam died after falling from the third floor of Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires.
According to a Mirror report, TMZ had also shared an image of a police tent erected over the singer's body.
Sharing the pictures, TMZ wrote: "TMZ obtained a photo showing Liam's body on a wooden deck at the hotel with tables and chairs nearby."
"We're not showing the whole body, but you can clearly see his tattoo - a clock on his left forearm, and a scorpion on his abdomen," the website had added.
Soon after, TMZ was subjected to furious backlash on social media, forcing the website to remove the photos of Liam's body.
TMZ also changed its news copy to: "TMZ has seen a photo showing Liam's body on the deck at the hotel with tables and chairs nearby. You can clearly see his tattoos - a clock on his left forearm, and a scorpion on his abdomen - which helped us confirm early reports from witnesses."
Rylan Clark, a British media personality, was among the first ones to criticise TMZ for the pictures. In a post on X, Clark wrote: "And TMZ f**king shame on you. Disgrace."
A former colleague of Liam, singer Alessia Cara, condemned the photos and called TMZ "gross".
"TMZ posting part of a photo of Liam Payne's dead body in an article announcing his death is beyond deplorable. I can't tell if I'm losing my mind lately or if society has always been this overtly morally decrepit," said a user.
"I know we complain about TMZ a lot but they really surprise me every time at how insensitive they can be," said another user.
A user also said: "The world has lost the value of respect."
Another user said: "No matter how you felt about Liam Payne, posting pictures of his dead body is f**king mental."
