Milo Yiannopoulos

Milo Yiannopoulos

Milo Yiannopoulos at LeWeb13 Conference
Born Milo Yiannopoulos
(1983-10-18) 18 October 1983
Athens, Greece
Nationality British
Occupation Journalist
Religion Roman Catholic[1]
Website yiannopoulos.net

Milo Yiannopoulos (/jəˈnɒpəlᵻs/,[2] Greek: Μίλων Γιαννόπουλος; born 18 October 1983)[3] is a British journalist and entrepreneur. Yiannopoulos founded The Kernel, an online tabloid magazine about technology, which he sold to Daily Dot Media in 2014. He rose to notability in late 2015 when he began to provide media coverage and commentary surrounding the Gamergate controversy. He is the technology editor for Breitbart.com, a conservative news and opinion website based in the United States.

Early life

Yiannopoulos was born in Greece, but was raised by a middle-class family in Kent. His stepfather is an architect.[4]

Education

Yiannopoulos attended the University of Manchester, dropping out without graduating.[5] He then attended Wolfson College, Cambridge where he studied English literature for two years before dropping out.[6][7] Regarding dropping out of university, in 2012 he told Forbes, "I try to tell myself I'm in good company, but ultimately it doesn't say great things about you unless you go on to terrific success in your own right."[6] In 2015, in an article titled "I dropped out of Manchester and Cambridge but it’s honestly fine," he wrote that he didn't believe a university degree was necessary for success, and that he believed he had achieved success without one.[5]

Career

Yiannopoulos originally intended to write theatre criticism, but became interested in technology journalism whilst investigating women in computing for The Daily Telegraph in 2009.[8] He also appeared on Sky News discussing social media,[9] and on BBC Breakfast discussing Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United Kingdom.[10]

As a gay Roman Catholic, Yiannopoulos has debated gay marriage on Newsnight,[11] and on Channel 4's 10 O'Clock Live with Boy George.[12] He later debated singer Will Young on Newsnight on the use of the word "gay" in the playground and Tinchy Stryder on the same programme in May 2014, about copyright infringement and music piracy. In March 2015 he appeared on The Big Questions, debating on topics relating to feminism and discrimination against men in the United Kingdom.[13]

In an articled titled I’m Sooo Bored of Being Gay, Yiannopoulos writes regarding his sexuality, "I’ll never forget the precise moment I chose to be gay. It was the endpoint in a process of rebellion against my white middle-class parents...Today, thanks to society’s endless mollycoddling and celebration of “alternative” lifestyles, the joy of rebellion is drying up for me. You see, I only plumped for homosexuality to irritate my parents. But now even they are fine with it. A few years ago, my mum said, perhaps cannily, “All I want is for you to be happy. That came as devastating news... Now my gayness was not only roundly applauded by wider society but even my own parents, what was the point?" He concludes: "Since gay people have been so endlessly praised, flattered and catered to by the media and politicians, I’ve lost interest in sleeping with men. I want to feel oppressed again! That’s why, from today, I’m going to make a go of being straight. Wish me luck!"[14]

Yiannopoulos has written under the pseudonym Milo Wagner.[7]

The Telegraph Tech Start-Up 100

Yiannopoulos organised a method of ranking the most promising technology start-ups in Europe, The Telegraph Tech Start-Up 100, in 2011. It operated through an events company, called Wrong Agency, that Yiannopoulos had started with David Rosenberg, a friend from Cambridge University. The company was dissolved shortly after the ceremony that awarded the top start-up.[7] Mike Butcher of TechCrunch said the main prize had been given to music streaming service Spotify, even though his casting vote had gone to the controversial payday loan company Wonga, because the Telegraph considered Wonga's reputation objectionable. Butcher wrote that Yiannopoulos "was put in an incredibly invidious position [because] the legitimacy of the methodology behind the judging process ... was sat on, unceremoniously. I don’t think he should take the blame for this at all. He could only do what he could do under the circumstances given [the] overt pressure from his backer. I reached out to him about all this but he’s declined to comment—perhaps understandably."[15] The Start-Up 100 did not return in 2012.

The Kernel

Together with university friends David Rosenberg and David Haywood Smith, journalist Stephen Pritchard and former Telegraph employee Adrian McShane, Yiannopoulos launched The Kernel in November 2011 to "fix European technology journalism."[16] The Kernel was at that time owned by Sentinel Media.

In 2012, the online magazine became embroiled in a legal dispute with one of its contributors after he said it failed to pay money owed to him.[7] The Kernel closed in March 2013, with thousands of pounds owed to former contributor Jason Hesse when he won a summary judgement from an employment tribunal against parent company Sentinel Media. Margot Huysman, whom Yiannopoulos had appointed associate editor and was one of the people seeking payment, said that many working for the site had been "screwed over" personally and financially.[17] Yiannopoulos also threatened, via email, to release embarrassing details and photographs of a Kernel contributor who sought payment for their work for the site and he also accused the contributor of being behind the "majority of damage to The Kernel". The unnamed contributor told the Guardian that the emails had been referred to the police.[18]

German venture capital vehicle BERLIN42 acquired The Kernel's assets in early 2013. The website displayed plans for a relaunch in August 2013 with fresh investment and Yiannopoulos reinstated as editor-in-chief.[19] BERLIN42 founding partner Aydogan Ali Schosswald would join its newly formed publishing company, Kernel Media, as chief executive. Yiannopoulos personally paid six former contributors money that the defunct company was unable to pay.[19]

The Independent on Sunday reported that the relaunched publication, based between London and Berlin, would focus on "modern warfare, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, pornography and space travel" from August, but newsletter The Nutshell would not return.[20] In 2014, The Kernel was acquired by the parent company of The Daily Dot, Daily Dot Media. He stepped down as Editor-in-Chief but remained an advisor to the company.[21]

Gamergate

Yiannopoulos was responsible for early news coverage of the Gamergate controversy, criticising what he saw as the politicisation of video game culture by "an army of sociopathic feminist programmers and campaigners, abetted by achingly politically correct American tech bloggers."[22][23][24] In December 2014, he announced he was working on a book about Gamergate.[25]

As part of his coverage of Gamergate, he published correspondence from GameJournoPros, an email list where members of the video game press coordinated the simultaneous publication of similar anti-Gamergate articles.[26][27] Kyle Orland, the creator of the list, responded to the leak on Ars Technica, admitting that he had written a message saying several things that he "soon came to regret", but also defending the list as "a place for business competitors ... to discuss issues of common professional interest".[28] Carter Dotson of pocketgamer.biz said that the list was indicative of an echo chamber effect in the gaming press.[29]

Ryan Cooper of The Week argued that Yiannopoulos "had little but sneering contempt for gamers" beforehand, highlighting Yiannopoulos' comments describing gamers as 'pungent beta male bollock-scratchers and twelve-year-olds' and 'a bit sad'.[30][31]

During the controversy, Yiannopoulos said that he received a syringe filled with an unknown substance through the post,[32][33] as well as a dead animal.

In May 2015, a meetup in Washington D.C. for supporters of Gamergate arranged by Yiannopoulos and Christina Hoff Sommers was targeted by a bomb threat made over Twitter, according to the local police responding to information supplied by the FBI.[34] Similarly, three months later, an event with Society of Professional Journalists in August 2015 was also targeted by bomb threats, forcing the evacuation of an event with Yiannopoulos and Sommers.[35][36][37][38]

Breitbart Tech

In October 2015, the Breitbart News Network placed Yiannopoulos in charge of its new "Breitbart Tech" section, which he said will "be free speech central—and we'll talk about stuff people really care about: Freedom, free speech, love, sex, death, money and porn." The site has six full-time staff, including an esports specialist.[39][40]

Yiannopoulos Privilege Grant

In January 2016, Yiannopoulos co-founded the Yiannopoulos Privilege Grant with Margaret MacLennan, “a scholarship exclusively available to white men who wish to pursue their post-secondary education on equal footing with their female, queer and ethnic minority classmates.”[41] The grant plans to disburse 50 grants of $2,500 to disadvantaged young men to assist them with their tertiary expenses, starting in the 2016-17 academic year. 100 grants of the same amount will be dispersed in the second year, and 200 in the third.[42] Discussing the grant on his Twitter, Yiannopoulos cited statistics that men only make up 43% of the USA's college students,[43] that women perform significantly better than men at many levels of education,[44] and that "women's advantage in graduation is evident at all socioeconomic levels and for most racial and ethnic groups"[45] as reasons for his grant, and personally contributed a significant amount of the funds himself.

In response to the charity, International Business Times journalist Tom Mendelsohn labelled Yiannopoulos a "troll" and stated that the journalist's "scheme" was "designed to derail social progress both by fanning the flames of controversy over the tiny efforts of redress certain institutions are making towards women and minorities, and by attempting to return power to whites." Mendelsohn also claimed that the grants were unnecessary due to the large number of other scholarships available for white men, and the wealth of the white male demographic in the US.[46] After receiving substantial media attention on platforms such as BuzzFeed[47] and International Business Times,[46] the Privilege Grant's official website was temporarily taken down due to DDoS attacks.[48] Addressing his attackers on Twitter, Yiannopoulos stated "I started a charity to help poor kids get to college. Response from progressives was to call me a racist, DDoS the site. They’re wonderful."[48]

Media coverage

Yiannopoulos was twice featured in Wired UK's yearly top 100 most influential people in Britain's digital economy: At 84 in 2011[49] and at 98 in 2012.[6][50] He was called the "pit bull of tech media" by Ben Dowell of The Observer.[51]

Other activities

Yiannopoulos hosted the Young Rewired State competition in 2010, an initiative to showcase the technological talents of 15–18-year-olds,[52] and organised The London Nude Tech Calendar, a calendar featuring members of the London technology scene to raise money for Take Heart India.[53]

He organised the moonwalk flash mob tribute to Michael Jackson in London's Liverpool Street station shortly after Jackson's death in 2009.[54] He explained that the idea of a flashmob as a tribute to Jackson was originally a humorous suggestion on Twitter, but then decided to make it happen, inviting people via social networking websites.[54]

In 2007, he self-published two collections of poetry. A self-professed "proper nut-job groupie" fan of pop singer Mariah Carey, in 2014, he wrote a column[55] for Business Insider explaining why he flew to Berlin to purchase Carey's album, Me. I Am Mariah... The Elusive Chanteuse five days before it was available in the UK and US.[56]

In October 2015, Yiannopoulos and feminist Julie Bindel were scheduled to participate in the University of Manchester Free Speech and Secular Society's debate ′From liberation to censorship: does modern feminism have a problem with free speech?′, but the student union banned Bindel, then later also Yiannopoulos.[57] The union cited Bindel's comments on transgender women and Yiannopoulos' opinions on rape culture, which they stated were both in breach of the union's safe space policy.[58][59]

In November 2015, Yiannopoulos was scheduled to give a talk at Bristol University.[60] After protesters attempted to have Yiannopoulos banned from the university, the event was turned into a debate between Yiannopoulos and The Daily Telegraph blogger and feminist Rebecca Reid.[61]

In January 2016, Twitter removed the blue "verification" checkmark from Yiannopoulos' (@Nero) Twitter account.[62] Twitter has a policy of not commenting on individual cases and so has not explained the reason for the removal of verification.[63] Some news outlets speculated that Yiannopoulos had violated its speech and harassment codes,[64][65] while others worried that Twitter was targeting conservatives.[66][67][68] The controversy brought the journalist increased visibility and an influx of 25,000+ new followers.[69] During a debate with Yiannopoulos on the BBC programme The Big Questions, journalist Connie St. Louis said the removed verification resulted from Yiannopoulos openly calling for an assassination via his Twitter account.[70][71] St. Louis later issued an apology on the official 'BBC's Big Questions' Twitter account, stating "this was incorrect and she apologises for this error".[72] In the same episode Kate Smurthwaite called Yiannopoulos a serial abuser.[73]

In March 2016, Yiannopoulos acquired accreditation for a White House press briefing for the first time. Prompted by his recent de-verification by Twitter, Yiannopoulos asked the White House to comment on the free speech stance of prominent social media platforms, arguing in one case, that "Conservative commentators and journalists are being punished, being suspended, having their tweets deleted by Twitter."[74]

In March 2016 on The Rubin Report, Yiannopoulos explained why one should not be bothered by a certain type of bigotry. He said, in part, "...the Jews run everything; well, we do. The Jews run all the banks; well, we do. The Jews run the media; well, we do… It’s a fact, this is not in debate. It’s a statistical fact... Jews run most of the banks; Jews completely dominate the media; Jews are vastly disproportionately represented in all of these professions. That's just a fact. It’s not anti-Semitic to point out statistics... It's not anti-Semitic to point out that these things are true."[75][76]

References

  1. ↑ Yiannopoulos, Milo (19 February 2016). "Sorry Papa, But Daddy Trump Is the One Defending Catholics from Invaders". Breitbart. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  2. ↑ Milo knows fuck-all about Kicky Kicky Funball [The Full Sky Debate] on YouTube, video taken from Yiannopoulos' official YouTube channel, pronunciation confirmed around 1:26, accessed March 22, 2016
  3. ↑ "Crunchbase Profile". Crunchbase.com. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. ↑ Ng, David (2015-10-29). "Gamergate advocate Milo Yiannopoulos blames feminists for SXSW debacle". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  5. 1 2 Milo Yiannopoulos (13 February 2015). "I dropped out of Manchester and Cambridge but it's honestly fine". The Tab.
  6. 1 2 3 Hicks, Jennifer (19 December 2012). "Digital Media's Citizen Kane". Forbes. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Arthur, Charles (12 September 2012). "The Kernel sued by former contributors for non-payment". guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  8. ↑ Brown, Kristen (2015-10-27). "The ultimate troll: The terrifying allure of Gamergate icon Milo Yiannopoulos". Fusion. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  9. ↑ Sky News, 19 November 2010, BSkyB, distributed by Fox International Channels.
  10. ↑ BBC Breakfast, 13 August 2010, BBC Television, distributed by the BBC.
  11. ↑ Newsnight, 15 March 2012, BBC Television, distributed by the BBC.
  12. ↑ 10 O'Clock Live, 17 February 2011, Channel 4.
  13. ↑ "BBC One - The Big Questions: Series 8, Episode 10". BBC. 15 March 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  14. ↑ http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/04/14/im-sooo-bored-of-being-gay/
  15. ↑ "Wonga won the Startup 100 awards, not Spotify". TechCrunch Europe. 17 May 2011. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  16. ↑ Yiannopoulos, Milo (10 November 2011). "It's time to fix European technology journalism". The Kernel. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  17. ↑ Charles Arthur. "The Kernel to close as debts stay unpaid". the Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  18. ↑ Charles Arthur. "The Kernel could face £11,000 payout order". the Guardian. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  19. 1 2 Williams-Grut, Oscar (19 December 2012). "The Kernel's back to make new enemies". Independent on Sunday. Retrieved 6 June 2013.
  20. ↑ Williams-Grut, Oscar (2 June 2013). "The Kernel's back to make new enemies". The Independent.
  21. ↑ "The Kernel acquired by The Daily Dot Media; founder moves on". Tech.eu. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  22. ↑ Yiannopoulos, Milo (1 September 2014). "Feminist bullies tearing the video game industry apart". breitbart.com. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  23. ↑ Griggs, Brandon (16 October 2014). "Behind the furor over #Gamergate". CNN. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  24. ↑ "GamerGate – what is it, and why are gamers so angry?". Metro. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  25. ↑ Yiannopoulos, Milo (15 December 2014). "I'm Writing a Book about #GamerGate". Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  26. ↑ Johnson, Eric (10 October 2014). "Understanding the Jargon of Gamergate". Recode. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  27. ↑ Lirios, Dino (19 September 2014). "Scandal in the Gaming Community: Elite Gaming Journalists Collude to Censor Stories". ChinaTopix. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  28. ↑ Orland, Kyle (18 September 2014). "Addressing allegations of "collusion" among gaming journalists". Ars Technica. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  29. ↑ Dotson, Carter (26 September 2014). "Escaping the echo chamber: GamerGaters and journalists have more in common than they think". Pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 25 October 2014.
  30. ↑ Cooper, Ryan (7 October 2014). "Intel's awful capitulation to #gamergate's sexist thugs". The Week. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  31. ↑ Yiannopoulos, Milo. "12-year-old console gamers are being 'raped' by dorky weirdos on grand theft auto". Breitbart. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  32. ↑ Bokhari, Allum (25 September 2014). "#GamerGate – An Issue With Two Sides". Techcrunch.com. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  33. ↑ Totilo, Stephen (12 October 2014). "Another Woman In Gaming Flees Home Following Death Threats". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved 19 October 2014.
  34. ↑ Good, Owen S. (3 May 2015). "Bomb threat clears out GamerGate gathering in Washington D.C.". Polygon. Vox Media. Retrieved 11 July 2015.
  35. ↑ Stephen Feller (15 August 2015). "Bomb threat interrupts GamerGate panel at journalism conference". UPI.
  36. ↑ Erik Kain (16 August 2015). "#GamerGate Event Evacuated After Multiple Bomb Threats". Forbes.
  37. ↑ "BREAKING: Gamer Gate Controversy Prompts Evacuation Of Koubek Center In Miami". Rise Miami News.
  38. ↑ "SPJ AirPlay event evacuated after multiple bomb threats". GamePolitics.com. 15 August 2015.
  39. ↑ "Breitbart brings its conservative take to tech journalism". New York: CNN Money. 2015-10-28. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
  40. ↑ Brustein, Joshua (2015-10-27). "Breitbart News Is Preparing to Troll Tech". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  41. ↑ "Breitbart Tech Editor Milo Yiannopoulos Launches College Scholarship for White Men - Breitbart". Breitbart. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  42. ↑ "Milo Yiannopoulos: The Dangerous Faggot Tour (Rutgers)" on YouTube
  43. ↑ "The NCES Fast Facts Tool provides quick answers to many education questions (National Center for Education Statistics)". nces.ed.gov. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  44. ↑ "Gender Differences in Participation and Completion of Undergraduate Education and How They Have Changed Over Time" (PDF).
  45. ↑ Ewert, Stephanie (2012-01-01). "Fewer Diplomas for Men: The Influence of College Experiences on the Gender Gap in College Graduation". The Journal of Higher Education 83 (6): 824–850. ISSN 1538-4640.
  46. 1 2 "Milo Yiannopoulos is the infuriating poster boy of white privilege". International Business Times UK. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  47. ↑ "Conservative Provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos Starts "White Men Only" Scholarship Fund". BuzzFeed. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  48. 1 2 "Milo Yiannopoulos launched college scholarships for low-income white males. Then this happened.". The Rebel. Retrieved 2016-01-25.
  49. ↑ "Wired 100 2011". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  50. ↑ "Wired 100 2012". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  51. ↑ Dowell, Ben (8 July 2012). "Milo Yiannopoulos – meet the 'pit bull' of tech media". The Observer. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  52. ↑ "Techno teens design public websites". MSN. 25 August 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  53. ↑ Arthur, Charles (18 November 2009). "London Nude Tech calendar: unclothed geeks (and ladygeeks) in a good cause". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  54. 1 2 "Moonwalking Jackson Fans Mob London Station". Sky News. 27 June 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  55. ↑ "I Had To Buy A$1,200 Plane Ticket To Get Mariah's New Album, And It's All The Record Label's Fault". Business Insider. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  56. ↑ "Some Guy Spent $1,200 on Mariah Carey's New Album". Gawker. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  57. ↑ "Milo Yiannopoulos, Julie Bindel banned from U.K. university's debate on censorship". Washington Times. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  58. ↑ Julie Bindel. "No platform: my exclusion proves this is an anti-feminist crusade". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  59. ↑ "UPDATED Statement from the Students' Union 05.10.2015 @ University of Manchester Students' Union". Manchesterstudentsunion.com. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  60. ↑ Churchill, L. (October 27, 2015). "Controversial Bristol talk by Milo Yiannopoulos could be turned into a debate". Bristol Post. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  61. ↑ Hunter, Daniel (December 4, 2015). "Milo Yiannopoulos v Rebecca Reid: What happened in last week’s debate". The Tab. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  62. ↑ "Twitter Unverifies Writer Amid Speech Wars". BuzzFeed.
  63. ↑ "Twitter refuses to say why it has punished UK journalist by removing 'verified' status". Press Gazette.
  64. ↑ Noah Kulwin (Jan 10, 2016) http://recode.net/2016/01/10/can-twitter-police-the-madness-on-its-platform-the-fallout-from-the-milo-yiannopoulous-controversy-suggests-not/. Recode
  65. ↑ Jim Edwards (10 January 2016). "Milo Yiannopoulos @Nero unverified by Twitter -". Business Insider.
  66. ↑ Scott Greer (14 January 2016). "How One Conservative's Lost Twitter Badge Spells Trouble For Free Expression". The Daily Caller.
  67. ↑ "Why is Twitter punishing conservatives?". The Week.
  68. ↑ "Twitter Goes to War with Conservatives, Unverifies Milo Yiannopoulos for Opposing Views". byzvest.
  69. ↑ Sara Ashley O'Brien (Jan 10, 2016)http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/10/technology/twitter-hate-speech-crackdown-milo-yiannopoulos/ CNN Money.
  70. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ymrby
  71. ↑ Kathy Young (23 January 2016). "Playing Politics With Online Abuse". RealClearPolitics.
  72. ↑ . Twitter https://twitter.com/bbcbigquestions/status/691165075978260480. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  73. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06ymrby
  74. ↑ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/breitbart-editor-asks-white-house-twitter-badge-article-1.2553980/
  75. ↑ Ben Shapiro, "Responding To The Alt Right: Are They Bigots, Or Just Stupid Children?"
  76. ↑ Armin Rosen, "Who Are Trump’s Alt-Right Supporters?"

External links

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