Twitter Bans Milo Yiannopoulos for Leading Abuse Campaign Against Actress 
 
 Twitter Inc. promised to strengthen its rules and procedures in order to curb targeted abuse against users, beginning with a ban against Milo Yiannopoulos, technology editor for the conservative news website Breitbart. 

 FILE - In this July 9, 2016 file photo, Leslie Jones arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Ghostbusters." In a series of posts Monday, July 19, Jones said she had been pummeled with racist tweets. She... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this July 9, 2016 file photo, Leslie Jones arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of "Ghostbusters." In a series of posts Monday, July 19, Jones said she had been pummeled with racist tweets. She... (Associated Press) 
 
 NEW YORK (AP) — Under a barrage of hateful posts on Twitter, "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones said she was "in a personal hell" and urged the social networking service to do more to eradicate abuse. 
 
 In a series of posts Monday night, Jones said she had been pummeled with racist tweets. She retweeted numerous tweets directed at her with disturbing language and pictures of apes. 
 
 Jones said the messages were deeply hurtful and brought her to tears. The "Saturday Night Live" cast member called on Twitter to strengthen guidelines and for users to "stop letting the ignorant people be the loud ones." 
 
 "I feel like I'm in a personal hell," wrote Jones. "I didn't do anything to deserve this. It's just too much. It shouldn't be like this. So hurt right now." 
 
 The exchanges came at a career high point for the "Saturday Night Live" cast member. "Ghostbusters," which opened last week, is her first major film role. "It's like when you think, 'OK I've proven I'm worthy' and then you get hit with a shovel of (hatred)," she said. 
 
 She concluded a string of messages early Tuesday morning. "I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart," wrote Jones. "All this cause I did a movie." 
 
 The tweets caught the attention of Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, who sent Jones a message asking her to get in touch with him. Twitter later responded in a statement. 
 
 "This type of abusive behavior is not permitted on Twitter, and we've taken action on many of the accounts reported to us by both Leslie and others," said a spokesperson for Twitter. "We rely on people to report this type of behavior to us but we are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to prevent this kind of abuse. We realize we still have a lot of work in front of us before Twitter is where it should be on how we handle these issues." 
 
 Then late Tuesday night, BuzzFeed News reported that Twitter had permanently suspended the account of conservative provocateur and Breitbart.com tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who it said led the harassment campaign against Jones. Yiannopoulos had more than 338,000 followers on Twitter prior to his suspension. He could not be immediately reached for comment. 
 
 "Ghostbusters," which also stars Melissa McCarthy, Kirsten Wiig and Kate McKinnon, has spawned an unusual amount of vitriol online, with many anonymous commenters targeting its female stars. The film debuted with $46 million over the weekend. 
 
 Many, however, have come to Jones' defense, tweeting support for the actress under the hashtag "LoveForLeslieJ." 

 Twitter has banned one of its most notoriously contentious voices. On Tuesday evening, the microblogging service permanently suspended the account of conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos, a day after he incited his followers to bombard Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones with racist and demeaning tweets. 
 
 "People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter," a company spokesperson said in a statement provided to BuzzFeed News. "But no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others." 
 
 
 
 Yiannopoulos, who currently serves as Breitbart's tech editor, has been hailed as a voice of the new “alt-right” movement. As such, he has made a living as a provocateur, continually inflaming tensions between progressive branches of the internet focused on identity politics and the fervently anti-PC segment that constantly trolls it. For years, Yiannopoulous has used Twitter not only to voice his controversial opinions, but to direct his legion of followers (388,042 at the time of this writing) toward his opponents. As a result, he's been temporarily banned from Twitter a number of times for violating its terms of service and stripped of his verified status. 
 
 
 
 But this week he went too far. According to Twitter, it was Yiannopoulos who led the harassment campaign against Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones — an effort that inspired the SNL cast member to leave Twitter. The barrage of tweets, many of which decried Jones for being black and a woman, were the final straw for Twitter, which is working to try to solve its harassment problem.
– Twitter has promised to crack down on "targeted abuse and harassment," and it appears to be serious about it: A conservative writer accused of leading a hate campaign against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones was banned from the site Tuesday, BuzzFeed reports. Milo Yiannopoulos, Breitbart.com's tech editor, was accused of encouraging racist and sexist harassment of Jones, who said the online abuse made her feel like she was in a "personal hell." Twitter spokesman Nu Wexler says that after a rise in reports of targeted abuse, the company has "taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of Tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension," Bloomberg reports. Wexler says Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey—who contacted Jones after she said the abuse had forced her off the site—has made dealing with abuse a priority. "We are continuing to invest heavily in improving our tools and enforcement systems to better allow us to identify and take faster action on abuse as it's happening and prevent repeat offenders," he says. Yiannopoulos, who had 338,000 followers, slammed the suspension as a "cowardly" act that shows Twitter "is a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives." "Like all acts of the totalitarian regressive left, this will blow up in their faces, netting me more adoring fans," he predicted. Jones' supporters, meanwhile, have been tweeting encouragement under the hashtag #LoveForLeslieJ, reports the AP.