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Publisher Simon and Schuster is defending its decision to sign a US $250,000 deal to publish the autobiography of “alt-right” provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

Yiannopoulos, who was banned from social media platform Twitter, has repeatedly said he believes transgender people are mentally ill.

The British author was a prominent campaigner for Donald Trump and has regularly caused controversy with his arguments against political correctness, Islam, social justice and feminism.

The autobiography, which will be titled Dangerous, has already climbed to the top of the best sellers list based on its pre-sales alone.

Posting to his Facebook account the writer said since he was banned from Twitter social justice warriors should be very scared.

“They said banning me from Twitter would finish me off. Just as I predicted, the opposite has happened. Every line of attack the forces of political correctness try on me fails pathetically. I’m more powerful, more influential, and more fabulous than ever before and this book is the moment Milo goes mainstream. Social justice warriors should be scared — very scared.” Yiannopoulos posted.

The publisher has defended the deal saying it does not endorse the authors views but asked people not to criticise the book until they had read it.

“We do not and never have condoned discrimination or hate speech in any form,” the company said in a statement released Friday. “At Simon & Schuster we have always published books by a wide range of authors with greatly varying, and frequently controversial opinions, and appealing to many different audiences of readers. While we are cognizant that many may disagree vehemently with the books we publish we note that the opinions expressed therein belong to our authors, and do not reflect either a corporate viewpoint or the views of our employees.”

Serveral of the publishers prominent authors have criticised the deal including Tim Federle, Rainbow Rowell, and Danielle Henderson.

The Chicago Review of Books announced that it will not review any books by the publisher next year because of its “disgusting validation of hate.”

Dangerous is slated to hit shelves on March 14, 2017.

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