Twitter has suspended the accounts of several "alt-right" figures who championed Donald Trump's bid for the White House.

Richard Spencer, director of a white nationalist think tank, accused the social media site of "corporate Stalinism" after his personal account was terminated, along with those associated with his magazine and organisation.

Also banned was Pax Dickinson, founder of "alt-right" site Wesearchr, and blogger Paul Town, who describes himself as "the leading thought leader of alt-right".

The move comes a day after Twitter announced it would expand its "mute" option in a bid to combat cyberbullying.

Image: Richard Spencer had a verified account on the social media site

In a video posted on YouTube, Mr Spencer said: "I am alive physically but digitally speaking there has been execution squads across the alt-right.


"Basically, my entire digital presence on Twitter has been suspended."

Mr Spencer compared the crackdown to Adolf Hitler wiping out opposition to the Nazi Party during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.

He added: "I think Twitter, Facebook and others are deeply triggered by this election and that social media helped elect Trump."

Prior to the crackdown, a non-profit organisation asked Twitter to remove more than 100 accounts of white supremacists, USA Today reports.

A Twitter spokesperson said the site's policies prohibit "violent threats, harassment and hateful content".

Image: Right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos was been banned from Twitter in July

In February, Twitter suspended more than 125,000 accounts, most of them linked to Islamic State, as part of efforts to eradicate "terrorist content".

Announcing upgrades to its "mute" feature on Tuesday, the site said: "We don't expect these announcements to suddenly remove abusive conduct from Twitter.

"Instead we commit to rapidly improving Twitter based on everything we observe and learn."

The updates come after a series of complaints of abuse on the social network.

In July, Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones briefly quit Twitter after what she said was a stream of abuse fuelled by comments from Milo Yiannopoulos, an editor at the conservative news site Breitbart.

Mr Yiannopoulos was subsequently banned from Twitter permanently.