Yiannopoulos’ suspension comes amid a recent campaign aimed at Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones in which users tweeted hundreds of racist and abusive messages.
Advertisement
Milo Yiannopoulos, who is a tech editor for the conservative web site Breitbart, has always been known for his conservative and alternative views on Twitter and for convincing his followers to troll certain Twitter accounts to express their conservative views, often going beyond what most consider acceptable behavior. Some people are going to find this perfectly acceptable. But 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.
Yiannopoulos’ account has been suspended before; he told BuzzFeed he wasn’t sure if he’d try to have it reinstated following this permanent ban, then later wrote on the Breitbart site that he was being held “responsible for the actions of fans and trolls using the special pretzel logic of the left”, adding that “this is the end for Twitter”.
While most journalists would shudder at the thought of being banned from Twitter, Yiannopoulos seemed unfazed by it while at a gay and lesbian support for Donald Trump party at the Republican National Convention. He then provided Jones’ Twitter address, with the all-caps comment – and apparent call to arms – “EVERYONE GETS HATE MAIL”.
In a statement, Twitter says they spotted an increase in accounts violating policies related to abuse, and taken “enforcement actions” against them.
The fuming 48-year-old responded to the abuse by screenshotting and retweeting numerous slurs, saying they had made her “numb”. It shouldn’t be like this. “So hurt right now”.
“I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart”. “All this ’cause I did a movie”. “You can hate the movie but the s– I got today. wrong”.
Yiannopoulos’ Twitter account had more than 338,000 followers, and the #FreeMilo and #FreeNero hashtags were still showing up as trending on Twitter Wednesday. In February, Twitter unveiled a Trust & Safety Council created to review policies and products related to curbing online abuse.
“We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behavior on Twitter”, they continued.
A spokesman for Twitter said the company had taken action against “many of the accounts reported to us by both Leslie and others”, according to The Associated Press.
Advertisement
It further read “We rely on people to report this type of behavior to us but we are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to prevent this kind of abuse”. Twitter said it expected to detail more of that in the coming weeks.
