Twitter’s “most infamous right-wing troll,” who is best known for outing the subject at the center of the now discredited Rolling Stone UVA story, also known for publishing the home addresses of New York Times reporters on the Ferguson story, and his bizarre take on the Philadelphia Amtrak crash by blaming the tragedy on the train conductor’s alleged homosexuality, has pretty much had his media operation grind to a halt after Twitter permanently suspended his account two weeks ago.
Twitter was Charles C. Johnson’s main platform, but since that’s been taken away, he’s had to resort to an underdeveloped Facebook fan page for his website, gotnews.com, appealing to his readers (or anyone who will listen) to sign a petition to get his account reinstated. So far, the response has been more than underwhelming, with only 277 signers (as of this writing) since the petition was launched on change.org 4 days ago.
In the petition’s letter to Twitter Inc., Johnson declares himself to be a crusader who “fights for truth in a world increasingly dominated by political correctness.”
“Homophobia, Islamophobia, Misogyny and Racism are most often propagandistic labels that have been coined by Fascists and used by Cowards, to manipulate Morons,” the letter reads.
If homophobes, Islamophobes, misogynists and racists ever needed a media figure to come to their defense, Johnson was their man. His outright racist and gutterly homophobic tweets were what put him on the map, even drawing the ire of conservative figures who scrambled to distance themselves from him.
Johnson’s fall began when he invited his Twitter followers to donate money to help him on his latest project of “taking out” the civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson.
Mckesson tweeted a reply, saying that he considered Johnson’s choice of words “a serious threat.” The very next day, Mckesson called for Johnson to be permanently banned from Twitter. “I have faith in the platform,” he told CNN. “I hope his suspension is indefinite.”
So, I woke up to this. Hate is organized in America. & yes, I take this as a serious threat. pic.twitter.com/V0zThcJJs6
— deray mckesson (@deray) May 24, 2015
Twitter heard the call, and quickly obliged, emailing Johnson to say he violated Twitter’s rules “around participating in targeted abuse” and that his account “will not be restored.”
In the wake of the suspension, posts on Johnson’s website have slowed considerably. The last article to go up was on May 29 and it, along with a few posts that came before it, consists of little more than self-righteous whining about how he’s actually the victim.
Pathetic.
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