Conservative blogger Milo Yiannopoulos has been permanently banned from Twitter for his role in harassing comedian and actress Leslie Jones.

Yiannopoulos, who is tech editor at conservative news site Breitbart and a self-described internet “supervillain,” had more than 338,000 Twitter followers and was notorious for his outspoken — and sometimes abusive — posts. Twitter had suspended his account numerous times before, including in June after he posted anti-Islamic tweets in response to the Orlando massacre.

Read: Twitter rolls out verification application process amid harassment furor

The last straw apparently came as he encouraged a wave of racist, misogynistic and generally offensive tweets at Jones, who stars in the all-female “Ghostbusters” reboot, a movie that has triggered a backlash from largely young, male internet trolls.

In a series of tweets Monday, Yiannopoulos called Jones “terrible,” “barely literate” and accused her of playing the victim. Jones retweeted a number of other hateful messages she received Monday, and announced she was leaving Twitter with “tears and a sad heart.”

In a statement Tuesday night, Twitter said: “People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. But no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others.”

Twitter also said it would continue to crack down on harassment. “We know many people believe we have not done enough to curb this type of behavior on Twitter. We agree,” the company said in its statement.

It added that it was working to improve technology to more quickly identify and remove abusive users of the service.

In a blog post on Breitbart on Tuesday night, Yiannopoulos called his banishment “cowardly,” saying “Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives. ... This is the end for Twitter. Anyone who cares about free speech has been sent a clear message: you’re not welcome on Twitter.”

Yiannopoulos isn’t the first prominent voice banned from Twitter. Rapper Azealia Banks and political blogger Chuck Johnson have also has their accounts shut because of their conduct.

But several on Twitter leaped to the defense of Yiannopoulos under the hashtag #FreeMilo. They criticized the company’s chief executive officer, Jack Dorsey, for cherry-picking who he chooses to ban and stifling what they said was the right to free speech: