Wikileaks went head-to-head with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Thursday over the ban of gay libertarian journalist Milo Yiannopoulos.
After writing a scathing review of the Ghostbusters reboot Monday, Yiannopoulos was drawn into a Twitter feud with the film’s star Leslie Jones and was subsequently blamed for comments made by other Twitter users.
In a statement on the matter, Twitter accused Yiannopoulos of “inciting” users to harass Jones despite no such evidence existing.
Cyber feudalism: @Twitter founder @Jack banned conservative gay libertarian @nero for speaking the ‘wrong’ way to actress @Lesdoggg
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 21, 2016
Wikileaks accused Dorsey of banning the provocative journalist merely for speaking the “wrong” way to a celebrity actress.
Dorsey, who rarely interacts with users on the platform, quickly responded in an attempt to refute the claim.
@wikileaks we don’t ban people for expressing their thoughts. Targeted abuse & inciting abuse against people however, that’s not allowed
— Jack (@jack) July 21, 2016
Dorsey asserted that only people engaged in “targeted abuse & inciting abuse” would be removed from the platform.
Despite claiming in the past that users, not the company, would largely control the platform, Twitter has increasingly acquiesced to demands concerning harassment. The problem, according to Wikileaks and many conservative journalists, is the social media site’s selective enforcement of rules.
Using a tweet from Jones herself, Wikileaks demanded answers as to why the actress was allowed to incite her users to harass an individual while Milo – who never asked his followers to do the same – was banned.
@whitebecky1776 bitch I want to tell you about your self but I’m gonna let everybody else do it I’m gonna retweet your hate!! Get her!!
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
“Get her!!” Leslie ordered her users the night Milo was banned.
Wikileaks, who said “it appears that a politically aligned famous American actress has access to ban-power that everyone else does not,” called for both more transparency and for Twitter to allow users to once again control the platform.
@jack It is time @Twitter got out of the censorship/justice game. Let users create communal filter lists if need be.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 21, 2016
Wikileaks, who currently holds over 3 million followers, even went as far as to promise to create a “rival service” if Twitter refused to stop using “feudal justice.”
@jack We will start a rival service if this keeps up because @WikiLeaks & our supporters are threatened by a space of feudal justice.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 21, 2016
Since the ban was instituted earlier this week, many media outlets including The New York Times and Time Magazine have falsely claimed that Yiannopoulos ordered his followers to engage in targeted harassment.
Speaking with Infowars Thursday, Yiannopoulos argued that the social media site has only further tarnished its image by making him into a free speech martyr.
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