On his website he describes himself as the ‘most fabulous supervillain on the internet’, so perhaps it’s somewhat fitting that he’s been banned permanently from Twitter.
We're referring, of course, the acerbic right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos. For some time, Yiannopoulos has been a notorious troll, he is an internet-famous angry man. He has previously been suspended and had his verified status revoked, but, it was his inciting of racially charged abuse of Leslie Jones, who stars in the new Ghostbusters film, which finally got him banned. The levels of abuse she was bombarded by eventually prompted Jones to go offline:
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 shit I got today...wrong
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
In the past Yiannopoulos has dismissed rape culture as a ‘myth’, comparing it to Harry Potter as they are ‘both fantasy’. He also once suggested on national TV that men might be better than women at science because there is such a thing as ‘male brains and female brains’, something which scientific research proves is categorically not the case.
Yesterday, as Jones received a huge number of racist and misogynistic tweets Yiannopoulos couldn’t resist fanning the flames. He has always defended himself and sought to maintain a platform under the auspices of ‘free speech’, to the extent that he complained to the White House when his verified status was revoked.
Writing on Breitbart.com, where he is employed as Tech Editor, Yiannopoulos wrote:
‘This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.’
However, Twitter’s decision to ban him permanently sends an important signal out to users of social media platforms: racism and sexism are not defensible nor are they free speech. Inciting any kind of hatred based on someone’s gender, skin colour or sexual orientation is unacceptable, it should be punishable online as it is in real life. Indeed, over the last year several public figures (including Lena Dunham) have left the site because they no longer feel it is a 'safe space'. Not so much the end of Twitter as the beginning of the end of online abuse.
Banning users like Yiannopoulus, who continually abuse others is an important step forwards. In a statement Twitter said ‘people should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. 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.’
They also addressed the criticism they have faced when it comes to tackling abuse on the platform, ‘we know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behavior on Twitter.’ They assured users by adding ‘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.’
You might also be interested in:
Follow Vicky on Twitter @Victoria_Spratt
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.