Milo Yiannopoulos, a self-proclaimed internet “super-villain,” has struck up a book deal with a conservative imprint of Simon & Schuster.
News of the deal quickly triggered a backlash and put Simon & Schuster, the publishing house owned by CBS Corporation, in the hot seat.
Yiannopoulos is the tech editor at the conservative website Breitbart, and is best known for his unapologetic, politically incorrect, and provocative online persona.
Twitter kicked him off the platform in July after he started a barrage of hateful Tweets directed at Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones.
Yiannopoulos has said that trans people suffer from a mental illness, professed that feminism is cancer, and called Black Lives Matter the “last socially acceptable hate group in America.”
On Thursday, Yiannopoulos announced his book deal with Threshold Editions, the part of Simon & Schuster that has published books from Donald Trump, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
The book is called “Dangerous,” and will seek to explain the rise of the “populist, nationalist Trump phenomenon,” according to a press release from Yiannopoulos, a British conservative who has been vocal in his support of Trump.
“Readers can expect a string of waspish one-liners and bitchy put-downs from America’s favorite mischievous gay conservative,” said the release, which states the book deal is worth a “mid-six figure sum.” Publishers do not typically release book deal prices.
The backlash on Twitter was swift, with people upset that an imprint of Simon & Schuster would do business with Yiannopoulos.
Others argued in favor of free speech, saying that publishing companies shouldn’t be criticized for publishing books by authors you disagree with.
“Milo” became a trending topic on Twitter on Thursday afternoon.
Yiannopoulos told CNNMoney that the backlash against Simon & Schuster is “repulsive.”
“Twenty years ago it would have been absurd to say that conservatives suffered from repression or that their free speech was being curtailed. But it’s true now,” he said.
The notion of toeing the line between hate speech and free speech on the internet has proven to be difficult.
After it banned Yiannopoulos from its platform, Twitter sent a statement to CNNMoney about curbing inappropriate speech on its platform.
“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,” the statement read.
When contacted by CNNMoney about the backlash, Threshold Editions declined to comment on the matter. It confirmed that it will publish “Dangerous” on March 14, 2017.
