Twitter has suspended the account of Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical executive charged with fraud in 2015 who faced widespread criticism when his company raised the price of a life-saving drug from $13.50 to $750, after he spent days harassing a female journalist.
Lauren Duca began tweeting screenshots of messages she received from Shkreli on Thursday — he invited her to be his date to Donald Trump's inauguration, and she declined by announcing, "I'd rather eat my own organs." On Sunday, she tweeted to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey a photo manipulated to look like she was sitting next to Shkreli (in the original picture, she's with her husband) that Shkreli used as his Twitter photo, and a Twitter banner comprised solely of pictures of Duca. "How is this allowed?" she asked.
Shkreli — whose Twitter bio at one point said he had a "small crush" on Duca — reacted by saying all he did was make a collage, tweeted at Duca that she was disrespecting the "sovereignty of my love for you," and announced that if she doesn't like him, she can "just block me or have her friend tell me." He also claimed he has fans, and they are the ones who have sent him photoshopped images. A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the company's rules "prohibit targeted harassment," and they will "take action on accounts violating those policies." Duca told BuzzFeed she thinks Shkreli is an "entitled creep," and he "absolutely" deserves to have his account suspended. "I think Martin should know that under no circumstances would I touch him with a 10-foot pole," she added, not because of his affinity for Trump, but because he "has committed an act of pharmaceutical terrorism."
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