Former Married At First Sight NZ star Tayler Morgan has been called out on social media for tagging a post about earphones with the location of White Island during the tragedy.
As Monday's disaster unfolded, Morgan uploaded a selfie of him sitting in a car with the caption: "I might want some Airpods," followed by two Christmas tree emojis and the geo-tag "White Island".
An eruption at the volcano left five people dead and up to fifty injured, with some still unaccounted for.
When called out for the "insensitive" post, Morgan claimed he didn't know there were any deaths when he uploaded it.
"Probs a bit insensitive to tag yourself at White Island for "likes" - lives are lost," one person commented, a sentiment which was echoed by others on the post.
"I'm not after likes. Probably insensitive but I mean nothing by it," Morgan replied.
"Don't get me wrong, It sucked that people die! I feel sorry for the families that have to get that news. In my defense, I didnt know anyone had dead when I posted cause I was at work [sic]."
Some commenters were unimpressed with Morgan's explanation.
"[It's] not 'probably insensitive' it is insensitive. Imagine the family of the deceased seeing your post about earphones whilst using White Island as the location."
The tradie insisted he "didn't mean any harm or disrespect" from the tag, but has since changed it to "Apple HQ".
Morgan later took to his Instagram story to post an NZME article on his indiscretion, writing, "But all the nice things I say gets overlooked! [sic]".
