Right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos has been permanently banned from Twitter for his involvement in the online abuse and trolling of Ghostbusters star, Leslie Jones.
Following the publication of a Ghostbusters review by the tech editor of conservative American news and opinion website Breitbart, Ms Jones became the target of abuse, the bulk of which made a point of attacking her for being a woman and black.
In response to her pleas for the platform to intervene, Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey requested she make further contact, but instead the 48-year-old decided to quit the platform “with tears and a very sad heart”.
Twitter however pursued the matter, evidently deciding the self-proclaimed “most fabulous supervillain on the internet” had taken it one step too far this time.
This is not the first time the British-Greek writer has been banned from the site; in June his account was temporarily suspended for his anti-Islamic tweets following the shooting in Orlando.
Unsurprisingly the writer didn’t take well to the permanent ban.
In an interview with Breitbart, he said the suspension by Twitter was “cowardly”, and evidence that the social media platform was a “no-go zone for conservatives”, reports The Guardian.
“Like all acts of the totalitarian regressive left, this will blow up in their faces, netting me more adoring fans. We’re winning the culture war, and Twitter just shot themselves in the foot,” he said.
“This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”
The writer’s statement brought his supporters out of the woodwork with a #FreeMilo hashtag emerging.
Until Wednesday, Mr Yiannopoulos had been tweeting as @Nero from his account of 338,000 followers.
In a statement released by Twitter, a spokesman addressed the matter, and while they agreed that people should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on the platform, they added that “no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online”.
“We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behaviour on Twitter. 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,” they said.
A review of Twitter’s ‘hateful conduct policy’ is currently taking place. Aiming to prohibit further abusive incidents, the platform is going one step further by endeavouring to allow further forms of reporting.