Twitter has banned an editor at the conservative Breitbart website following a wave of targeted racial slurs that drove “Ghostbusters” star Leslie Jones to abandon the social media platform in disgust.
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The action was taken in response to Yiannopoulos’ behavior, which Twitter said “violated its rules regarding the targeted abuse of specific users”.
Ms. Jones tweeted, “I used to wonder why some celebs don’t have Twitter accts now I know”. All this cause I did a movie.
Likewise, supporters of Yiannopoulos are rallying around the hashtag #FreeMilo, which is now trending on Twitter. “Anyone who believes in free speech or is a conservative certainly will not”. “You can hate the movie but the s*** I got today.wrong”.
Jones, who is African-American, was inundated by disturbing tweets over the weekend containing racial slurs, accusing her of being ugly and likening her to the recently-slain Cincinnati Zoo gorilla Harambe.
Some cases involving “trolling” on Twitter include an influential user encouraging followers to bombard a specific account with tweets, although Twitter does not confirm that’s the case with Yiannopoulos.
“No one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others”, Nu Wexler, a spokesman for San Francisco- based Twitter, said in a statement.
The most high-profile suspension came down on Milo Yiannopoulos – an editor at the conservative news site Breitbart and a notorious Twitter instigator, known for his prominent role in the Gamergate controversy and the men’s rights and alt-right movements.
While the Ghostbusters remake has been plagued by harassment since its trailer first hit the Internet, the attacks against Jones specifically reached a new level on Monday, prompting director Paul Feig to tweet in support of the Saturday Night Live castmember. Twitter deleted his tweets after banning him.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) permanently suspended a number of user accounts for abusive behaviors, which is a violation of the company’s policies.
Making Twitter safer from those who harass and make threats is one of Twitter chief exective Jack Dorsey’s top priorities for the year and he has vowed to get tougher on trolls.
Twitter said it was “reviewing our hateful conduct policy to prohibit additional types of abusive behavior” and would provide more details soon. “We agree. We are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to better allow us to identify and take faster action on abuse as it’s happening and prevent repeat offenders”, according to the company.
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“People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter”, Twitter said in a statement.
