Famous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli Is Suspended From Twitter for Harassing Teen Vogue Journalist Lauren Duca

By Jacob Weindling  |  January 9, 2017 | 9:12am
Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty
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Famous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli Is Suspended From Twitter for Harassing Teen Vogue Journalist Lauren Duca

When the aspiring Montgomery Burns isn’t jacking up the price of life saving medicine so he can pay for an exclusive Wu-Tang album to hide from the world, or supporting a meat-filled bottle of spray tanner for president, Martin Shkreli spends much of his time on the web as a composite of every online troll. After Lauren Duca blew up the internet with her Donald Trump is gaslighting America piece in Teen Vogue and subsequent terrific appearance fighting back against Tucker Carlson’s inherent sexism on his Fox News show, Shkreli began a campaign that can only be called harassment.

Shkreli changed his profile picture to one of Duca and her husband, but with Shkreli’s head photoshopped on to Duca’s husband’s body. After bringing it to Jack Dorsey’s attention, the co-Founder of Twitter, Shkreli replied directly to Duca with a tweet that reads like it was written by a half-drunk, 15 year old boy.

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As soon as the righteous anger poured in, Shkreli dismissed his stalker-like actions as merely making “a collage.”

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Perhaps sensing that his excuse wasn’t up to snuff, he retreated even further to the “I didn’t make these, I just post what my fans make” classic line of bullshit.

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Buzzfeed reached out to Shkreli to see what the hell was going on, and he tweeted a screen shot to their conversation soon after.

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Once Twitter suspended Shkreli from the site, Lauren Duca told Buzzfeed “I think Martin should know that under no circumstances would I touch him with a 10-foot pole. It has nothing to do with Donald Trump, but with the fact that he has committed an act of pharmaceutical terrorism.”

Unfortunately, Duca is not the first victim of Shkreli’s online harassment, as journalist Dana Schwartz endured a similar saga.

A simple search of “Shkreli” on Twitter returns a litany of interactions with women like this one:

Suspending Martin Shkreli from Twitter is a good start, but if America is really going to rid itself of our biggest troll (outside the White House), we need to think bigger. Next time Elon Musk sends a payload up to the International Space Station, let’s make sure Shkreli is along for the ride, with no return trip planned until he learns how to act like a human being, and not an amalgam of every terrible person on the internet.

 
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