Milo Yiannopoulos getting permanently banned from Twitter is not a First Amendment issue

Last night, Twitter took the unusual measure of kicking Breitbart editor and right-wing “troll” Milo Yiannopoulos (@nero) off the service, permanently.

Yiannopoulos’s followers, of which there are many, are arguing that this is a suppression of free speech, and that the ban is a violation of the First Amendment. This is incorrect.

Twitter is a private enterprise, and according to Twitter, Yiannopoulos violated its terms of service. Twitter is well within its rights to boot Yiannopoulos; the guy doesn’t have a right to be on Twitter, especially if he doesn’t play by the rules.

Or as the XKCD webcomic author Randall Munroe memorably put it:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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