Twitter Abuse Scandal: Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, And Pretty Much Every Harry Styles Ex Targeted On Twitter Before Leslie Jones

Leslie Jones of Ghostbusters fame has left Twitter after complaining about floods of racist and sexist abuse.

Then actress wrote, “Twitter, I understand you got free speech. I get it. But there has to be some guidelines.”

Jones alleged that Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos was one of the ringleaders in provoking and encouraging her attackers.

Twitter took their time responding to Jones’s pleas, but the network eventually banned Milo and released the following statement about their community standards:

“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. 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.”

Guardian reports that Twitter has vowed to act more swiftly in the future to respond to such incidents.

Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey has reached out to Jones, asking her to message him directly. Dorsey wrote, “Hi Leslie, following, please DM me when you have a moment.”

Hi Leslie, following, please DM me when you have a moment

— jack (@jack) July 19, 2016

Milo’s own publication, Breitbart, reports that Leslie Jones herself posted some racist Tweets, including one bemoaning “white people s***,” before she finally left Twitter.

No major news organisation has yet picked up on Jones’ racist tweets about white people, or the fact that she was hitting back at “trolls” before Yiannopoulos ever got involved.

Milo called the suspension of his account “cowardly” and said that Twitter has become nothing more than “a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists,” reports 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. Twitter is holding me responsible for the actions of fans and trolls using the special pretzel logic of the left.

Milo declared the day of his banning “the end of Twitter” and reflected that Twitter has some pretty warped and unfair moderation policies. The conservative gay columnist points out that Twitter did not bat an eye when fans of Justin Bieber began using Twitter as a forum to share images of themselves cutting to show their love for the pop star.

“Where are the Twitter police when Justin Bieber’s fans cut themselves on his behalf? Like all acts of the totalitarian regressive left, this will blow up in their faces, netting me more adoring fans. We’re winning the culture war, and Twitter just shot themselves in the foot. This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”

Daily Mail reported in 2013 about the sick trend #CutforBieber.

Twitter users and Bieber fans [have] been posting graphic images, including ones of themselves with slashed wrists, surrounded by blades and blood, with some unknown to be real or fake.

Miley Cyrus spoke out against the trend, writing ” ‘#cut4bieber? Cutting is NOT something to joke about. There are people who are actually suffering from self-harm, this is so disrespectful.”

Justin Bieber himself has been abused, hacked, and even used as an ISIS recruiting aid on Twitter.

Metro reported earlier this year that ISIS were using Justin Bieber’s popularity to spread their message and trick teenage girls into watching a jihadi execution video.

(IMAGE) ISIS has been using Justin Bieber hashtag to spread their execution video propaganda to youth on Twitter pic.twitter.com/wlgguQuZis

— American Jihad Watch (@Watcherone) February 2, 2016

Another active social media celebrity, Taylor Swift, was targeted recently after Kim Kardashian leaked a recording of a private phone Swift had with Kanye West.

Swift’s accounts were flooded with snake emojis as fans expressed their anger and shock over the Kardashian/West exposé. One of the most revered figures in Hollywood appeared to have been exposed as a liar and a fake.

Instagram was quick to leap to Swift’s defense, removing a large chunk of the snake images that were littering Swift’s accounts.

Instagram users are reporting that the app is actively monitoring her post, deleting comments that contain rat or snake emojis or any sort of “hate speech.” If you try to leave a comment with snake emojis, good luck—you’ll likely run into a pop-up from Instagram warning you that they “restrict certain content and actions to protect our community.

QZ alleges that Taylor Swift enjoys unfair levels of protection on social media due to her white privilege. Instagram responded to Swift’s distress promptly, while Twitter took their time addressing the Leslie Jones case.

While Instagram was busy deleting [the Taylor Swift] emojis, Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones was spending her Monday retweeting racist comments she’s been receiving in wake of the movie’s release… Jones was forced to manually block the offenders herself, many of whom were likening her to an ape and barraging her with offensive pictures.

By far the easiest way to get yourself attacked on Twitter, though, is to be a female who is linked in any way to One Direction’s Harry Styles.

If you fulfill these two conditions, it is all but guaranteed that the mighty One Direction fandom will make it happen. Cases in point are Caroline Flack, Caggie Dunlop and Taylor Swift herself, who were all subject to floods of abuse after they got involved with the One Direction star, reports Sugarscape.

Even a chance meeting with Harry Styles can put you at risk of a Twitter attack. Saira Khan of Loose Women spoke about the floods of abuse she received after running into Harry randomly then sending him a casual tweet, reports Daily Mail.

I found myself the victim of a baying mob of trolls.

Is Twitter a dangerous place to be a celebrity? Has the platform been fair in implementing its banning and moderation policies?

(AP Photo / Abraham Caro Marin)