Twitter blocks promoted tweets by notorious white supremacist

Company acts to prevent further abuse by white nationalist and internet troll after he promoted two offensive tweets using Twitter's ad platform

Twitter has banned promoted tweets that were being used to push white supremacist messages on the website. The tweets were sent and promoted through the company's advertising tools by Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer, a former president of the trolling group known as the "Gay Nigger Association of America".

Among the tweets promoted by Auernheimer was one that read: "Whites need to stand up for one another and defend ourselves from violence and discrimination. Our race is dying." A second promoted tweet read: "White pride, world wide. Do you know the 14 words?" - a reference to the white nationalist credo: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."