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Twitter on Tuesday suspended the account of Richard Spencer, one of the leading voices of the alt-right movement, amid a wider crackdown on hate speech and cyber bullying. It also expanded the use of several existing tools and changed policies to make it easier for users to fight back against abuse and harassment.
Twitter suspended the accounts of Spencer, president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank. It also suspended the account of the organization, as well as the accounts of its online magazine and Washington Summit Publishers, which is Spencer's book publishing firm.
Spencer referred to the move as "corporate Stalinist."
The suspensions and larger crackdown come amid an increase in reported hate crimes since the presidential election, which was praised by a number of alt-right groups while thousands of protesters took to the streets in cities across the country.
"The Twitter rules prohibit violent threats, harassment, hateful conduct and multiple account abuse, and we will take actions on accounts violating those policies," a Twitter spokesperson told the media.
Twitter's mute button, which allows users to block certain accounts, has been enhanced to allow users to block keywords, phrases and entire conversations they consider offensive, similar to the Unfollow feature on Facebook.