The White House on Thursday declined to condemn Twitter for banning conservative media personality Milo Yiannopoulos, saying that "people are more likely to use" social media sites that combat "hateful ideology."

Spokesman Josh Earnest was asked about the issue in a question tying Yiannopoulos to Twitter speech policies that could be viewed as encompassing both political activity and posts by terrorist groups such as the Islamic State.

"The United States government, and President Obama, and the Obama administration are quite obviously strongly committed to First Amendment protections," Earnest replied. "At the same time, social media companies like Twitter have to make their own decisions and set their own policies for the use of their technology.

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"And obviously the U.S. government has been able to work effectively with the social media companies in many instances to combat individuals who might try to capitalize on this technology to propagate a hateful ideology and inspire people to carry out acts of violence," he added. "I think what is also true with Twitter is that they also ... recognize that having some rules of the road, some terms of use allows for a more effective tool."

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Yiannopoulos, who works as a tech editor for Breitbart News, was permanently banned from the site on Tuesday evening, minutes before he was scheduled to hold a "Gays for Trump" rally in Cleveland. The ban came after comments Yiannopoulos made critical of an actress starring in the new "Ghostbusters" movie, though Twitter would not specify exactly which comments.

"People are more likely to use the social media tool to connect with their friends or other people around the world if they know that they're not going to be subjected to a stream of hate every time they log on," Earnest said. "So the considerations that Twitter and other social media companies have to make are different than the kind of considerations that the U.S. government has to make.

"We have a commitment to protecting people's First Amendment rights," Earnest added. "Twitter has a commitment to their users and to their customers in fostering an environment that makes people feel comfortable enough to use it. So I'm certainly not going to second-guess any of the steps that Twitter, or any other social media company has to make with this regard."