Twitter banned the conservative writer Milo Yiannopoulos after a number of the writer’s tweets racially slurred Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones. Twitter is trying to forge policies that would curb abusive speech while critics see its efforts as abusing free speech principles. (The Washington Post, July 20, 2016, by Abby Ohlheiser)
Yiannopoulos who works for Breitbart News provoked hundreds of anonymous tweets against Jones that were cruel and salacious. Twitter said to The New York Times, “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.” (US Weekly, July 20, 2016, by Nicholas Hautman)
The ban inspired a vibrant debate on free speech on Twitter under the hashtage #FreeMilo. (Mashable, July 20, 2016, by Gianluca Mezzofiore)
Jesse Singal of New York Magazine, July 20, 2016, writes that contrary to Yannnopoulos’s contentions that his ban make Twitter inhospitable to conservatives, the site continues to host conservative views. Referring to recent Twitter bans on individuals, Singal writes, “In none of these three cases was the person in question suspended or banned for expressing controversial, unpopular political opinions; in all of them, they found themselves in Twitter’s crosshairs because they targeted individuals in specific, malicious ways that undeniably make the platform a worse and more toxic place.”