Sam Fulwood III: Milo’s fall from a hateful summit

  Until recently, I’d never heard of Milo Yiannopoulos. How I wish that blissful ignorance had remained intact.

  Over the past several years, Yiannopoulos has developed a fanatic following among a minority of Americans who’ve embraced his nasty bleating on Breitbart. Had he been confined exclusively to Breitbart, I might not have ever become aware of him. Alas, he crossed my path this month, turning up like a lightening bug smashing into my social media windshield.

  The bombastic provocateur accepted a headline speaking gig at the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. That didn’t sit too well with some of Yiannopoulos’ critics, of which I’ve learned there are legions. He seems to enjoy attracting controversy as a means to burnish his reputation and line his pocket. Yiannopoulos is an unlikely hero for the conservative political action group; he’s an openly gay man who delights in thumbing his nose at mainstream social conventions.

Gene Policinski: What is “free speech” on the web — in theory and in practice?

  Who can say what, on the Web?

  Twitter has raised questions anew with reports of a lifetime ban on tweets from conservative blogger Milo Yiannopoulos — reportedly after complaints that he engineered a wave of racist and sexist comments directed against comedian and actress Leslie Jones, who is co-starring in the latest “Ghostbusters” movie.

  Yiannopoulos is an editor on the conservative blog site Breitbart.com whose posts frequently create controversy on the web. He responded to the reported Twitter action by saying, “Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: You’re not welcome on Twitter.” He also called the ban “cowardly.”