CNN Money: Twitter Crackdown on Hate Speech Backfires

cnn-money-logo-story-top

Sara Ashley O’Brien writes in CNN Money 

Twitter’s new crusade against violent speech was a hot topic this weekend.

The company has gone after a popular — albeit controversial — Twitter user. It revoked the “verified” status of Milo Yiannopoulos, a British journalist at Breitbart News, on Friday evening.

Yiannopoulos has over 140,000 Twitter followers and is known for his provocative, unapologetic commentary. He’s been vocal in the contentious movement known as GamerGate, which claims to promote ethics in gaming journalism but has been condemned for its treatment of women.

On Twitter, Yiannopoulos, who is gay, has taken aim at women. Like this tweet from December: “Is it any wonder successful gay men hate feminists, when women, in tax terms as elsewhere, are so … well, parasitical?”

On Friday evening, Yiannopoulos tweeted a screenshot of an email from Twitter stating that his verification had been revoked. “I’ve been sat at the naughty table!” he wrote.

The screenshot, which Twitter told CNNMoney is valid, states that additional violations on his part could result in being removed from the platform all together.

You can read the rest of the story here.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.