Claim: Milo Yiannopoulos’ Twitter Ban was a cowardly action. He was unfairly targeted and it’s an infringement on his free speech.
Fact: The objections to Milo Yiannopoulos’ Twitter Ban are mostly straw man arguments that don’t address the actual reasons for his account’s suspension. Twitter is a private company (not a government/public entity) that stands to lose financially if its influential users leave. It was not Yiannopoulos’ first suspension, and this was merely the latest instance in which he had acted as a ringleader where he instigated a Twitter storm of harassment (including racist messages) against users who were not themselves engaged in a political dialogue. He also spoofed Leslie Jones’ Tweets, which are clearly laid out as grounds for suspension in Twitter’s TOS.
On July 18, 2016, Milo Yiannopoulos’ Twitter account was permanently suspended. Since then, the internet has been awash with complaints that don’t fully address (and that falsely make the claim that this is part of some anti-Conservative bias) the reasons for the ban, generally giving an incorrect or partial reason for the ban, and falsely make the case that the ban was unwarranted. Below are the main points to keep in mind:
- This was not the first instance where Milo instigated a harassing Tweetstorm
- His targets weren’t just harassed by him, but by his followers
- Milo was also spoofing Leslie Jones Tweets and this is grounds for termination under Twitter’s policy.
- He had been temporarily banned on several occasions
- Twitter has it larger user base to consider
- Twitter bans are in fact common
- Members of groups Milo disagrees with have also been banned
- Twitter is a private company, not a public resource
This was not the first instance where Milo instigated a harassing Tweetstorm
Most of the objections to Yiannopoulos’ ban phrase the situation as a one-off instance. “Milo Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter for harassing Leslie Jones” is simply not true. In reality, Leslie Jones was merely the latest target of these attacks. This is important to keep in mind when comparing Yiannopoulos’ Twitter activity to other Twitter users who’ve cited as examples of Twitter’s alleged lack of objectivity.
