UPDATE, 3:30 pm: Milo now has all his followers back (plus a few hundred more)
After suspending him this morning, Twitter reinstated Milo Yiannopoulos—but with tens of thousands fewer followers, and a mystery as to who created the call to action that (temporarily) robbed Milo of his social media platform.
Milo was suspended on Twitter after he announced an afternoon press conference in Orlando, Fla., where he planned to speak about the connection between Islam and the mass shooting this past weekend. (He had originally planned to deliver the address at the University of Central Florida, but campus police there canceled the event.) Immediately, #FreeMilo and #FreeNero (his Twitter handle) began trending on Twitter, and as of 1pm EST, Milo’s account has been released. (Thanks to our eagle-eyed commenters for spotting his triumphant return.)
But when Milo returned, he had only about 10,000 of his 275,000 followers. Just 15 minutes later his follower count had risen, but only to about half of his total followers.
Twitter users are having to “refollow” Milo manually. It is not clear whether this Twitter’s intent or whether it’s taking an extended amount of time to for Twitter to restore all of Milo’s followers.
There is no official word on what caused Milo’s banishment in the first place, but Milo and others suspect a coordinated effort by a Muslim Twitter user who has 1.2 million followers.
Milo has asked for comment from Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey, and for an explanation as to why he was banned without notice.
We will update with further information as it becomes available.