Wednesday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos presented his side on the the controversy over Twitter permanently banning him.
Partial transcript as follows:
MICHELLE CARUSO-CABRERA: On Monday Lesley Jones quit Twitter following a series of racist and sexist attacks. CEO Jack Dorsey reached out to Jones quickly and the social media company promised to take action. One day later Milo Yiannopoulos a conservative writer for Breitbart.com was permanently suspended from Twitter, although the company did not specifically cite the conflict with Jones, the suspension came after Yiannopoulos posted this tweet to his more than 380,000 followers. ‘If at first you don’t succeed because you’re work is terrible, play the victim. Everyone gets hate mail, FFS.’ Which I assure you does not stand for french fries and salad. Joining us now is Milo Yiannopoulos technology editor with Breitbart.com.
YIANNOPOULOS: Thanks for having me.
CARUSO-CABRERA: You’ve been permanently banned from Twitter.
YIANNOPOULOS: I have.
CARUSO-CABRERA: You’ve been pretty mean through the years on Twitter.
YIANNOPOULOS: I’ve been pretty mean through the years on Twitter. But I don’t think that’s a reason to excise somebody from the platform. You know, actually plenty of people enjoy what I do. Over 380,000 of them as you say, enjoy what I do. And there’s no suggestion whatsoever I was involved in any kind of racist or sexist harassment of Leslie Jones. What I did is dislike her movie, and write a very critical review that she didn’t like. After that teased her on Twitter. if a journalist can’t tease a Hollywood blockbuster actress, I don’t know what this platform is about.
CARUSO-CABRERA: Many of your followers started to attack her as well. I mean, some of those things were brutal. and your acknowledge.
YIANNOPOULOS: Yes, of course. and some are completely disgust disgusting. But I’m not responsible for what other people post on the internet. Is Justin Bieber responsible when his fans cut themselves with the hashtag Cuts for Bieber? Is Beyonce responsible when her fans go after One Directionist with death threats and rape threats, of course not. It’s preposterous to suggest that a public figure an entertainer, personality, or prominent journalist is responsible for what other people post on the internet.
CARUSO-CABRERA: Let me read to you what you wrote in 2012. ‘The internet is not a universal human right, we ban drunks from driving because they’re a danger to others. Isn’t it the time we did same to trolls, trolls for people who do not know are people like you who are mean on Twitter.’ You wrote this, right?
YIANNOPOULOS: No, of course.
CARUSO-CABRERA: What happened? You don’t agree with this anymore?
YIANNOPOULOS: I agree with it entirely. Twitter is a private company entitled to do what it likes. The problem is it’s lying to users. Jack Dorsey says it’s the free speech platform of the free speech wing of the free speech party, that he wants it to be a utility like water. Twitter is a place you go if you want to express yourself. That’s a lie. There is a systemic campaign against conservative and libertarian points of view on Twitter. How do we know this? Not from the company’s own notoriously opaque statements but the fact they apply their own rules so capriciously and inconsistently. There’s only one possible explanation. Twitter is perfectly happy to host ISIS, to host death threats from Donald Trump supporters and they do not take any of it down.
CARUSO-CABRERA: They try to take those down. They try.
YIANNOPOULOS: Not hard enough. You make a joke about a feminist or dislike the new “Ghostbusters” movie or have the audacity to dislike the work, in Hollywood of somebody’s movie who happens to be black or happens to be a woman and then you get suspended That is absurd.
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