Breitbart editor banned from Twitter after Leslie Jones racial row

20 July 2016 - 15:37 By Sefiso Hlongwane
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The tech editor of Breibart, a politically conservative American news and opinion website, has been permanently suspended from Twitter, following a wave of targeted racial slurs that drove "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones to abandon the social media platform in disgust.

In his tweets, which are no long accessible on Twitter because his account has been shut down, Milo Yiannopoulos - who is notorious for provocative posts - called Leslie's work "terrible" and said that she was "barely literate."

The suspension came a day after Leslie said she was leaving Twitter after being bombarded by internet trolls likening her to an ape and making other racist insults.

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"I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart. All this cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the sh*t I got today... wrong," the Saturday Night Live comedian and actress wrote on Tuesday.

"Twitter I understand you got free speech I get it. But there has to be some guidelines when you let spread like that," she said in another tweet.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded with a tweet back to Leslie saying he was "following" and asking her to contact him directly.

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Milos' Twitter account, which reportedly boasted more than 388,000 followers, was blocked sometime later.

"Your account has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter rules ... specifically our rules prohibiting or participating in or inciting targeted abuse of individuals," the Twitter notification posted by Breitbart said.

The series of online onslaughts comes after the weekend US release of Ghostbusters, which has been lauded by critics but maligned by some Twitter users who have accused its female stars of being unfunny and of having ruined their childhoods.

However, fans  started a #LoveForLeslieJ hashtag, encouraging Leslie to "stay strong" and return to Twitter, in addition to the slew of celebrities, including John Boyega and Jada Pinkett Smith, who publicly offered their support.

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