Milo Yiannopoulos, self-described "most fabulous supervillian on the internet”, gets permanent ban on Twitter!

Image courtesy: Milo Yiannopoulos/Facebook

New York: The world's top microblogging site, Twitter, has been under fire from critics and many users for being a bit too lax when it comes to taking action on trolls and abusive behaviour on the social networking platform.

Now, it seems that Twitter has finally started to take matters seriously and its first step in this direction was banning its most abusive user from the site permanently!

Twitter took the plunge and banned Milo Yiannopoulos, the tech editor at conservative news site Breitbart and one of Twitter's most offensive users, after several complaints and repeated suspensions against him.

Twitter decided it was the last straw when, Yiannopoulos led an online troll against Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, who was showered with racist and misogynist tweets following her role in the female-led film remake. Jones vowed to leave Twitter over her treatment, prompting a major outburst on social media, engadget.com reported on Wednesday.

This led to a huge outcry by Twitter users, who seized the microblogging site asking it to ban Yiannopoulos and triggering off a hashtag trend for #BanNero (@Nero is the handle that Milo Yiannopoulos used on Twitter).

"People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. 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," Twitter said in a statement.

Yiannopoulos reacted to the ban, saying that the site has "confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and 'Black Lives Matter' extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives."

The Breitbart tech editor has been disturbing Twitter users with his trolls for the past few years. Twitter earlier removed his verified status, but allowed him to keep tweeting.

This is not the first time Twitter has issued a permanent ban on a user. Last March, Chuck Johnson who once argued that homosexuality caused a horrendous Amtrak train crash, was permanently barred from the site.

(With IANS inputs)