Los Angeles - Twitter
suspended the account of Martin Shkreli after the brash former pharmaceutical
executive harassed a female reporter online, the latest high-profile case of
abuse on the social media service.
Over the past few days,
freelance reporter Lauren Duca posted about several unwanted digital advances
by Shkreli, the former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals,
including a message in which Shkreli invited her to the inauguration of President-elect
Donald Trump. Unbowed, Shkreli proceeded to post about Duca publicly, prompting
her to ask Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to intervene on Sunday.
“The Twitter Rules prohibit
targeted harassment, and we will take action on accounts violating those policies,”
a Twitter spokesman said in a statement Sunday. The rules allow Shkreli to
appeal his suspension, but he would have to make changes to his account before
being reinstated. Shkreli declined to comment via e-mail.
Shkreli targeted Duca after
she wrote that Trump was undermining civil rights and manipulating Americans in
an essay for Teen Vogue. The piece landed her on a few cable TV news
programs. Shkreli endorsed Trump last March, and released snippets of an
unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album to celebrate Trump’s victory in November.
Twitter has struggled to
curb harassment on its service for years. Though the service enabled
millions of people living under repressive regimes to report abuse and
organize, it has also empowered some users to hurl repugnant tweets at others.
Read also: Twitter seeks new path
Leslie Jones, a cast member
of “Saturday Night Live,” briefly quit Twitter because she grew weary of the
abuse, and only rejoined after Dorsey intervened. Twitter banned Milo
Yiannopoulos, an editor at Breitbart News who led the campaign against Jones.
Morphed
Over the years, harassment
on Twitter has morphed from a distraction into a full-fledged business problem.
Walt Disney is said to have ended its pursuit of the social media company at
least in part because the home of Mickey Mouse feared the abuse would tarnish
its kid-friendly image. Late last year, Twitter introduced new tools to help
users protect themselves, and it suspended some accounts of prominent white
supremacists.
Read also: Cyberbullying: Twitter expands its 'mute' option
Shkreli, a prolific tweeter,
is no stranger to controversy. He rose to fame when Turing raised prices for a
drug called Daraprim by more than 50-fold. That made him a poster boy for price
gouging in the pharmaceutical industry, and got him included in a recent US
Senate committee report that called on the government to increase competition
to lower prices.
Shkreli later paid millions
of dollars for a copy of a Wu-Yang Clan album, and has since been charged with
defrauding investors. He pleaded not guilty.