Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos was suspended from Twitter once more just 20 minutes before his “Gays for Trump” event takes place at the Republican National Convention. The justification for the suspension was the result of Milo’s run-in with Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones on the site. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey publicly reached out to Jones late on Monday evening after she complained about “abuse” on the platform. Milo was suspended despite the fact that he sent no abusive tweets to the actress.
Leslie Jones was later hacked and nude photos leaked to on the internet. Marc Randazza, a First Amendment lawyer based in Los Angeles, told The Wrap that:
“There’s zero chance that this wasn’t a fan of Milo’s (Yiannopoulos),” [Randazza] said. “The other zero percent here is it’s zero percent Milo’s fault.”
Also a fat goose egg are the chances that Breitbart editor Yiannopoulos — who was recently suspended from Twitter for “targeted abuse” of Jones via the social media platform — will face any legal trouble over this ordeal, Randazza said.
“If this was somebody who was a fan of Milo Yiannopoulos, unless he directed it, he has no liability at all,” Randazza continued. “If he just created a culture of it — as he has been accused in the past — that’s legally nothing.”
“Had Twitter not banned Milo Yiannopoulos, I bet it wouldn’t have happened,” he opined.
After all, “This guy’s got millions of fans, so just do the numbers, man,” the revenge porn lawyer explained. “All you need is one out of 10 million to have the motivation to do this. Now, I’ll bet there was one in 100,000 that had the motivation to do this … maybe one in 200,000 had the motivation and the ability.”
BuzzFeed gleefully reported that the suspension is permanent, citing a statement from Twitter promising a clampdown on “targeted abuse.” Milo has also received a message from Twitter confirming that his ban is permanent, copied below. The statement also promises to tackle “hateful” conduct, in the wake of widespread media condemnation of racist tweets sent to Leslie Jones. However, it remains to be seen whether Twitter will take any action against Jones’ own racially hateful tweets, seen below and archived here.
In a comment, Milo said,
“With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives.”
“Twitter is holding me responsible for the actions of fans and trolls using the special pretzel logic of the left. Where are the Twitter police when Justin Bieber’s fans cut themselves on his behalf?”
“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.”
“This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”
Twitter, a company in dire financial trouble, has developed a reputation for draconian, onesided and often-unexplained suspensions of conservative users. Meanwhile, the platform has demonstrated an unashamed bias towards progressive causes like Black Lives Matter, ignoring open calls for violence against police officers that emerged following both the Dallas and Baton Rouge shootings.
In further indication of its political biases, Twitter also let death threats against Republican Senators remain on the platform for months without taking action. Previous attempts to punish Milo have generated huge backlashes from conservative users, and this one – Twitter’s most severe clampdown on the Breitbart senior editor so far – may generate the biggest yet.
Shortly after getting suspended on Twitter, Breitbart Senior Editor Milo Yiannopoulos took the stage at a “Gays for Trump” event here in Cleveland.
“There is a war on,” Yiannopoulos said. “And it is a culture war.”
The war, he explained, was not being covered by traditional media, but it was apparent that the left had already seized cultural institutions like universities and the news and entertainment industry.
“Most journalists are dorks, most journalists are idiots, most journalists don’t understand where the real battlegrounds are,” he said.
His suspension from Twitter, he explained, was just one more example of how the left was trying to silence those who wanted to challenge their monopoly.
“Having just gotten suspended from Twitter, they say permanently for getting in a fight with a black Ghostbuster,” he said laughing. “What a humiliating end to a wonderful run. I thought, It could have at least be getting into a fight with somebody serious, but no, it was a tertiary star of a f$#%ing terrible feminist flop.”
In a statement, Yiannopoulos pointed out the hypocrisy of the company decision after a mob of social justice warriors demanded that he be removed.
“Twitter is intent on protecting free speech, as long as you are a Hollywood actress who bravely tweets about white people, or a New York globalist advocating for violence against Donald Trump. They’ve made it clear that being gay and conservative doesn’t get me past the velvet rope into their free speech club, which is looking more and more like the same liberal echo chamber the mainstream media turned into decades ago.”
Earlier in the evening, Yiannopoulos was dining with media colleagues and friends in Cleveland when he found out that he was permanently banned from Twitter.
Looking up from his phone he gleefully informed his dinner partners that the day of his social media martyrdom had finally arrived.
Supporters of Milo, who had more than 338,000 followers on Twitter prior to his suspension, have created the #FreeMilo and #FreeNero hashtags on the platform in protest at Twitter’s latest attack on the conservative commentator. It is currently accumulating approximately 20-30 tweets a minute. Unless Twitter artificially suppresses the hashtag, it’s likely to stay trending throughout the night.
As of 2018, Milo has nearly a million subscribers on his Youtube channel and more than 2.5 million followers on Facebook.
Sources:
