People on Twitter are making a stand against the service’s failure to support victims of harassment and hate.
In light of reports of sexual harassment and rape by movie executive Harvey Weinstein, many individuals are coming forward to voice their own experiences. One of the most notable voices has been that of actress Rose McGowan’s who tweeted that her own assault has “been an open secret in Hollywood/Media & they shamed me while adulating my rapist.” Twitter decided to temporarily suspend the actress’s account yesterday, sparking outrage.
The movement was started by Kelly Ellis, a software engineer and former employee of Google, who previously wrote about the harassment she has personally experienced and Twitter’s failure to address it. Last year, Ellis wrote about a string of abusive tweets she received which Twitter would not act on. Yesterday, Ellis noted that even while McGowan’s account was silenced by the site, rape threats she has received in the past have not been removed or acted on.
The movement encourages users, especially women, to ‘go dark’ in protest of the site’s poor protections against abuse and harassment.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that “We do need to do a better job at showing that we are not selectively applying rules.”
We do need to do a better job at showing that we are not selectively applying rules.
— jack (@jack) October 12, 2017
