To someone like Milo Yiannopoulos, being offensive is just as important as making a point. The Breitbart editor is well-known for his lack of decorum, a serious deficiency of compassion, and a charming demeanor masking off-the-charts douchebaggery, leading me to believe it was in fact a time traveling version of him, and not James Spader, who played Steff McKee in Pretty in Pink.
Milo Yiannopoulos is a jackass, without question, and it’s his jackassery, likely combined with a splash of Versace Eros, that got him straight up banned from Twitter.
Yiannopoulos (@Nero) has been made an example of by the microblogging platform. He is said to have rallied and directed users to hurl racial slurs, sexist remarks, and other abusive language at actress Leslie Jones, who stars in the new Ghostbusters flick. The abuse leveled at Jones was so bad, she quit using Twitter as a result, signing off with the following:
I feel like I'm in a personal hell. I didn't do anything to deserve this. It's just too much. It shouldn't be like this. So hurt right now.
— Leslie Jones ? (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
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
Twitter hasn’t commented directly on Milo Yiannopoulos’ ban, but has addressed the escalating trolling problem within their network of users in statement sent to PC Magazine which reads:
“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. Over the last 48 hour in particular, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against those accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension.”
Permanent suspensions… like the one administered to a certain bleach-blonde malignant tumor.
Yiannopoulos’ ban is drawing ire from many who have condemned the ban as an attack on free speech, propelling their complaints with the hashtag #FreeMilo.
https://twitter.com/bakedalaska/status/755607539262361600
https://twitter.com/Bamanboi/status/755718122317971456
https://twitter.com/muzikgirl11/status/755716474631622656
Even Markus Persson, creator of the world-building enslavement trap Minecraft, has thrown his support toward Yiannopoulos.
https://twitter.com/notch/status/755718117305806848
https://twitter.com/notch/status/755719171338563586
Yiannopoulos spoke candidly about his ban on Tuesday evening, referring to Twitter’s actions as “the beginning of the end” of the platform.
“Some people are going to find this perfectly acceptable. Anyone who believes in free speech or is a conservative certainly will not.”
Despite Milo Yiannopoulos’ claims, at the end of the day, his ban isn’t a free speech issue. Sure, speech is at the center of it, along with the abuse it rendered, but Yiannopoulos isn’t banned from Twitter because of his speech alone. His ban comes from a violation of Twitter’s user agreement and even though Twitter has been wildly inconsistent in combating abusive language, that doesn’t mean they are in the wrong when they follow through with the repercussions of violating their rules.
If Milo Yiannopoulos were as intelligent as he believes himself to be, he’d understand that.
Featured image by Kmeron, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
h/t New York Times
