Twitter bans users for vile abuse of ‘Ghostbusters’ star

Twitter has permanently suspended a number of user accounts for abuse and harassment after Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones drew renewed attention to the issue and announced she would quit the social media site.

Jones retweeted and shared several abusive tweets she received before telling her 250,000 followers:

“I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart. All this cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the shit I got today... wrong.”

Among those banned was Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos, who has been a controversial figure on the site and helped lead the abuse against Jones.

Yiannopoulos, who had more than 338,000 followers on Twitter, responded in a comment on Breitbart.

“With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives,” Yiannopoulos said. “This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”

However, many people have taken issue with abuse on the site, including writer and actress Lena Dunham.

Twitter said: “We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behaviour on Twitter. We agree.

"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.”