“Ghostbusters” director Paul Feig tweeted: “Leslie Jones is one of the greatest people I know”.
Advertisement
Among those banned Tuesday was Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been a controversial figure on the site and helped lead the abuse against Jones. The tweets from Yiannopoulos and his followers ultimately convinced Jones to leave the social-media platform. “All this ’cause I did a movie”.
The company said that it is in general working to crack down on abuse. “We agree”, Twitter said in the statement.
It continued: “Over the past 48 hours in particular, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of Tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension”.
“With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives”, he said.
Though this is definitely a step in the right direction, here’s hoping that Twitter continues to put in some serious work to end the constant stream of vile tweets that torment its users.
In a series of tweets on Monday, Jones said she was in a “personal hell” due to the abuse she was receiving.
Twitter didn’t release the names of the other accounts it suspended in response to the attacks on Jones, but Reuters reports that those actions will be permanent as well.
Over several tweets, Jones, who is also a regular cast member on Saturday Night Live, also publicly pondered about what would prompt people to “spew hate”.
Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey responded to Jones, asking her to message him directly.
“He just sent a very clear message to the entire user base of Twitter, which is if you believe in mischief and dissidence and fun and free speech, you’re not welcome on Twitter. When an account engages in abusive behavior, like sending threats to others or impersonating other accounts, we may suspend it temporarily or, in some cases, permanently”.
Yiannopoulos, for his part, told NPR in an emailed statement that he did nothing wrong and did not violate Twitter’s terms of service, calling the suspension political and restrictive of conservative ideas.
Advertisement
Twitter said it is investing in improving its tools and enforcement systems, and is in the process of reviewing its hateful-conduct policies “to prohibit additional types of abusive behavior and allow more types of reporting, with the goal of reducing the burden on the person being targeted”, according to a statement. Some people are going to find this perfectly acceptable.
