July 21, 2016

Breitbart News tech editor and professional provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has officially been banned from Twitter.

The popular social networking site issued the ban after a cadre of Milo’s alt-right fan-base flooded Ghostbusters actress, Leslie Jones’s Twitter feed with maliciously racist memes and messages. Twitter attributed the source of this vitriol to Milo, accusing him of violating their rules. The Daily Wire’s John Nolte had an excellent run-down on Leslie Jones’s subsequent Twitter meltdown here.

The response to Twitter’s latest move in its continued pattern of censoring conservatives is worth analyzing. The position on the right has overwhelmingly been to first accuse Twitter of violating Milo’s right to free speech, and second, pointing out Twitter’s obvious partisanship when it comes to enforcing its rules.

The first point, I would urge conservatives to drop. We believe in freedom of association. Meaning for example, the online dating site Christian Mingle can decide how their own company is run. They ought to have the right to refuse service to, for example, individuals seeking same-sex partnerships, free of governmental overreach. Likewise, as a private company, Twitter should be free to decide who can or can’t use their service on their own volition.

Milo’s right to free speech doesn’t extend to having a right to express himself on Twitter. That’s actual tyranny. The idea that the government can go to the Twitter execs and force them to open their platform to anyone they choose to.

The point that should be focused on, is the latter. Twitter’s patent political bias. The Ghostbustersactress, Leslie Jones, herself has a whole slew of Tweets that would land any right-wing figure in hot water. A few examples:

Like Twitter, CNN portrays itself as an objective company. In reality, CNN is largely a Clintonian, left-wing activism organization with an agenda. Nonetheless, conservatives don’t accuse CNN of violating anyone’s constitutional rights through their palpably slanted coverage of every issue.

For the same reasons, we shouldn’t be accusing Twitter of infringing upon Milo’s right to free speech. The government doesn’t have the right to force Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, to give Milo a platform any more than it has the right to force Christian bakers to cater same-sex weddings.

What we ought to do, is expose such behavior from private companies. There’s a good reason Twitter doesn’t openly write in its Terms & Conditions, “We don’t take kindly to libertarian or conservative views here.” The shareholders would have the CEO and upper management fired in less time than it took the Ghostbusters reboot to tank.