Martin Shkreli's Twitter Account Suspended For Trolling And Harassing A Freelance Reporter
The Verge – Martin Shkreli’s Twitter account was suspended sometime early Sunday afternoon, following a period of targeted harassment against freelance reporter Lauren Duca. In an email to The Verge, Twitter confirmed that the temporary suspension was related to the harassment of Duca, but would not give any further details and a spokesperson declined to be quoted directly. Duca has been in the news a lot lately after penning the essay “Trump is Gaslighting America” for Teen Vogue. In light of the piece’s popularity, she was invited to make several television appearances, including a face-off with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. That clip went viral due to Carlson’s statement that Duca should stop talking about politics and “stick to thigh-high boots.” Following her media appearances, Shkreli, a professed Trump supporter, has decided to troll her. On Thursday, Duca tweeted a screenshot of a direct Twitter message from Shkreli, best known for hiking the price on an anti-parasitic drug by a factor of 56, refusing to answer questions about alleged fraud, and begging celebrities to listen to a rare Wu-Tang Clan album with him. In it, he asked her if she wanted to be his date to President-elect Trump’s inauguration. Following the message, Shkreli added a line to his Twitter bio saying he had “a small crush on @laurenduca.” He also changed his profile image to a doctored photo of Duca and her husband, swapping his face into the image. He changed his banner to a collage of photos of Duca, overlaid with lyrics from John Michael Montgomery’s 1994 single “I Swear.” He also tweeted that he had purchased the domain name “marrymelauren.com.” Shkreli’s followers then joined in, tweeting more Photoshops of Shkreli with Duca.
Duca Responded:
Duca tweeted screenshots of Shkreli’s profile to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at 10:55AM ET on Sunday and Shkreli’s account was suspended around 1PM ET. When reached for comment via Twitter, Duca told The Verge:
“Martin Shkreli is engaged in targeted harassment, and absolutely deserves to have his account suspended. It’s unfortunate that the only reason people are paying attention is because he’s relatively high-profile. Trolling seems to be an automatic occupational hazard for female writers who receive any level of professional attention. That’s something Twitter needs to work harder to fix, but obviously the problem runs far deeper.”
Is it a little weird to take the time to buy a website domain and tweet love lyrics at a girl who write for Teen Vogue? Yes, yes it is. Is it an all time villain move to make your profile picture a girl and her husband with your face photoshopped over his? Hundo p. And is Martin Shkreli a big old insecure weirdo who has more fame and notoriety than he knows what to do with? Absolutely.
But does all this add up to getting banned from Twitter? No fucking way. Its always dicey for me with these blogs – the Shkreli’s and the Milo’s of the internet. On the one hand, I preach just being fucking normal and not being a complete asshole to everyone you come across, which is most certainly not what lifelong internet trolls do. On the other hand, as someone who often says things on the internet that push the envelope in the name of comedy, I feel like I’m in the same boat with them. I’m not trying to sit her and condone making married women feel uncomfortable with your advances but cmon now gimme a break. Homegirl tweeted out his DMs and threw the first punch. Shkreli came over the top and went straight blitzkrieg internet troll on her and basically drowned her with Twitter stupidity. The husband photoshop was an all time move. And while some shit may have been weird I dont think anyone can honestly say that any of this stuff was truly threatening. Calling this harassment is an insult to people who actually harass. Big Cat used to make romantic video montages to Ashley Greene that were just as creepy. My persistent crusade against Lena Dunham is way more mean than any of this shit. Twitter has gone SAWFT if this kinda shit can get you banned.
Its like Benjamin Franklin once said – I may not agree with all of your methods to creepily troll and hit on a Teen Vogue reporter but I will defend to the death your right to do it.