Users across Twitter are taking the day off the site to protest the banning of actress\/director Rose McGowan. Others are staying for the same reasons.<\/b>
\nUsers across Twitter are absenting themselves from Twitter today following the social media site\u2019s banning of actress\/director Rose McGowan.
McGowan has been vocal on Twitter during the Harvey Weinstein rape scandal currently rocking the entertainment industry. She\u2019s tweeted the names of several people who knew \u2014 or should have known \u2014 about Weinstein\u2019s alleged attacks on women, as revealed by a recent New Yorker expos\u00e9.
Earlier this week, McGowan posted on Instagram a message from Twitter informing her that her account was locked and would be until she deleted certain tweets.
According to Twitter, one of McGowan\u2019s tweets contained a private phone number, and this violates their policy against doxing.
As several people pointed out, Twitter enforces these rules very unevenly. For example, Fox anchor Lou Dobbs doxed Jessica Leeds, a woman who accused Donald Trump of groping her, by retweeting a tweet that contained her number and address. To my knowledge, Dobbs was never suspended, though the tweet was eventually deleted.
Today, women are boycotting the platform en masse in protest of McGowan\u2019s ban. The trend appears to have began with software engineer Kelly Ellis:
And now advocates include McGowan herself and several other actors, men and women, with several Twitter users voicing their support and intent to participate.
There has also been a push to do the exact opposite, from those who don\u2019t find this an effective form of protest.
Others protest the movement, saying Twitter users were not so quick to side with less visible figures who were also given the same treatment.
Personally, while I don\u2019t tweet every day, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d actively keep myself off the platform today. One of the ugliest details of the Weinstein case was the apparent quashing of the victims\u2019 stories. I don\u2019t believe me voluntarily removing myself would help the women who\u2019ve suffered at the hands of powerful abusers.
That\u2019s only my opinion, of course.
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