UPDATE: We did a long live show talking about the suspension and issues surrounding it…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQOf4FQaScU

 

More on this as we get it

 

After years of provocation, Twitter has permanently banned Milo Yiannopoulos from its service.

Yiannopoulos, who currently serves as Breitbart.com’s tech editor, has been hailed as a standout voice of the new “alt-right” movement. As such, he has made a living as a provocateur, continually inflaming tensions between progressive branches of the internet focused on identity politics and the fervently anti-PC segment that constantly trolls it. For years, Yiannopoulous has used Twitter not only to voice his controversial opinions, but to direct his legion of followers (388,042 at the time of this writing) toward his opponents. As a result, he’s been temporarily banned from Twitter a number of times for violating its terms of service and stripped of his verification…

Here’s the statement, according to a Twitter spokesperson:

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 past 48 hours in particular, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of Tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension.We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behavior 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. We have been in the process of reviewing our hateful conduct policy to prohibit additional types of abusive behavior and allow more types of reporting, with the goal of reducing the burden on the person being targeted. We’ll provide more details on those changes in the coming weeks.

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http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/07/19/breaking-milo-suspended-twitter-20-minutes-party/

https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/755587754289991680

MY TAKE:

You know the funny thing is, I had a tweet from Milo pulled up earlier that I was going to turn into a story. I can’t show it to you now, but it said something to the effect of feminism turned Leslie Jones into a quivering victim who was crying and whining like a pathetic mess and we should all be very angry because of it. That’s 100% true. Modern feminism and the kinds of people who follow their high priests are complete poison to the public dialogue. They’re not interested in the free and open exchange of ideas…they only want to censor.

I haven’t talked to Milo in a few months, but one thing I’ve always admired about him is the way he triggers the folks I just mentioned. Twitter will be a lot less exciting without him. But the precedent that has been set here will not be forgotten. I expect to see many more bans to come, including my own. I really hope I’m wrong, because I have a lot of fun with my friends and readers over there, but it would be foolish not to think it’s coming now.

 

MORE ON MILO:

Recode calls this a “step in the right direction”…

The New York Times calls Milo “one of the most egregious and consistent offenders of [Twitter’s] terms of service”

Jim/InternetAristocrat/MisterMetokur called this whole thing the night before it happened…

https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/755245716977487873

https://twitter.com/MisterMetokur/status/755591134882111488

https://twitter.com/k_mcq/status/755588032418443264

https://twitter.com/StefanMolyneux/status/755599781003603968

 

Everyone’s favorite person just had to chime in…

MORE PERSONALITIES TALK #FREEMILO:

https://twitter.com/Ricky_Vaughn99/status/755598832222601216

https://twitter.com/bakedalaska/status/755607539262361600

https://twitter.com/GrrrGraphics/status/755606907348410368

https://twitter.com/scrowder/status/755604167545221121

 

MILO SPEAKS:

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.

MORE MILO:

In an interview with Reason, Yiannopoulos insisted that Twitter would rue the day it retaliated against him. “I’m doing lots of interviews tomorrow,” he said.

He may well be right. The hashtag “Free Milo” began trending on Twitter within hours of his ban.

As I’ve pointed out many times, Twitter is a private company. It can set its own speech policies, and those policies don’t have to be fair. There’s no universal human right to own a Twitter account.

But if Twitter wants to live up to its stated commitment to maintaining a public forum where provocative, controversial, and even occasionally rude or hurtful speech is tolerated, ten it should consider restoring Yiannopoulos’s profile. Giving his friends and followers a reason to reward his antics with even more attention seems like a worse result than simply letting him tweet his offensive remarks.

 

He also talked about this a little bit during his speech at a Gays For Trump gathering in Cleveland, which is were the 2016 Republican National Convention is being held this year….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i05eXluAQ18

https://twitter.com/IamQueenAri/status/755677373681373184

FOLLOW-UP POST…