Why did Twitter take so long to finally ban one of its biggest trolls?

Twitter on Tuesday night permanently banned conservative pundit and Breitbart Tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos from its platform. 

Yiannopoulos was banned for his role in the online harassment of Ghostbusters actress Leslie Jones. After writing a scathing review of the film, Yiannopoulos and Jones exchanged words on Twitter. 

Jones was sent a deluge of harassing messages, many of them racist. Jones left Twitter on Monday night. I don’t blame her. As she said herself, all of this over a movie. 

It’s important to note that Yiannopoulos himself didn’t send the most hateful messages. What he did do was post screencaps of fake tweets that made it seem like Jones herself was saying hateful, terrible things. This only fed the trolls that continued to harass and attack her.  Read more...