A star of the 'alt-right' movement notorious for comparing feminism to cancer has been banned from speaking at an English school, reportedly because of his extremist views.
Fast-talking 32 year-old provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos is one of the leading columnists for Breitbart, the media organisation that embraced the alt-right, ran a strident pro-Donald-Trump line during the election, and whose chairman Steve Bannon is about to become the chief strategist for Trump's presidency.
Yiannopoulos was banned from Twitter earlier this year after the site decided he had incited his followers to racially harass Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones.
He had been due to appear at his former school, the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury, Kent this Wednesday.
His talk was going to cover politics, the alt-right and the US election.
However on Monday the school announced the talk had been cancelled after discussions with the government education department (DFE).
"This decision was taken following contact from the DFE Counter Extremism Unit, the threat of demonstrations at the school by organised groups and members of the public, and our overall concerns for the security of the school site and the safety of our community," the school said in a statement.
"Whilst disappointed that both the pastoral care and intellectual preparation we offer to our students has been called into question, we at The Langton remain committed to the principle of free speech and open debate and will resist, where possible, all forms of censorship."
Yiannopoulos claimed on Facebook last week – before the ban - that he had been expelled from the school for outrageous behaviour, adding "the moral of the story is: success trumps everything!".
In response to the news his talk had been cancelled he wrote: "My old high school has been bullied into canceling my talk on Tuesday by the 'counter-extremism' unit at the U.K. Department of Education.
"Who even knew the DoE had a counter-extremism unit? And that it wasn't set up to combat terrorism but rather to punish gays with the wrong opinions?
"Perhaps if I'd called the speech "MUSLIMS ARE AWESOME!" they'd have left us alone. Disgusted."
Government sources told Buzzfeed the final decision to cancel the talk had been made by the school.
Though the talk had been supported by staff and students, in the interest of free speech, there had been growing opposition from some parents and the wider school community.
Two former students published an 'open letter' saying they remembered Yiannopoulos as a young man but felt that he had become "a twisted new incarnation of the far right".
They said cancelling the talk was not the same as censorship: the school should not encourage his "hate speech", and 17 year old boys were not equipped to present counter-arguments to his bigotry.
"His harassment and bullying of women, particularly black women, online is well documented," they wrote.
"His invective is hate speech. A man who states 'feminism is cancer' is not interested in debate or nuance.
"The school's idea that the pupils will provide a robust debate is naive and foolish."
Yiannopoulos is an enthusiastic supporter of the misogynist 'Gamergate' movement.
His work at Breitbart include columns titled "Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?" and "Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy".
But Breitbart celebrates Yiannopoulos' ability to troll the left, defending his headlines as "provocative gems" that upset the "snowflake left".
Yiannopoulos himself says he is not interested in people's feelings, only facts.
