Twitter bars Milo Yiannopoulos over torrent of abusive comments

The ban against Yiannopoulos, a technology editor at the conservative news site Breitbart and known by his Twitter handle, @Nero, follows a campaign of prolonged abuse against Leslie Jones, a comedian and co-star of the recently released “Ghostbusters” movie.

The film and its stars have come under fire from various parts of the Internet for months, after it was revealed that the reboot of the 1984 film would feature women in all four lead roles.

Hundreds of anonymous Twitter commenters hurled racist and sexist remarks at the star’s Twitter account, rallied and directed by Yiannopoulos.

Twitter did not comment directly on Yiannopoulos’ account or actions of the past 48 hours, but the spokesman said that during that period, “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.”

In the past, the San Francisco company has faced criticism for its handling of what became known as GamerGate, where female gamers were increasingly harassed — often to the point of receiving death threats.

Twitter said it is investing in improving its tools and enforcement systems, and is in the process of reviewing its hateful conduct policies “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.”