A one day protest aimed at calling out Twitter and bringing attention to the way women are treated on the social media platform attracted mixed responses on Friday.
The #womenboycotttwitter hashtag was trending after being created, in part, to highlight the fact that actress Rose McGowan was temporarily locked out of her account this week while calling attention to her own rape and the treatment of other women in Hollywood, especially at the hands of producer Harvey Weinstein.
Twitter said action was taken against McGowan after she violated their terms of service by publishing someone’s phone number in a tweet. But supporters of the actress viewed it as just another strike against women who speak out against men and sexual harassment.
Some in Hollywood did join the protest, indicating that they would be staying off Twitter for the whole day to call attention to the issues.
https://twitter.com/kerrywashington/status/918710875942350851
https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen/status/918680964661833729
But others used their tweets to say that boycotting and staying silent was exactly the problem, and that women making even more noise was the real way to bring change to the platform.
https://twitter.com/x__BadWolf__x/status/918829220817702918
https://twitter.com/caponeagain/status/918825446418124800
https://twitter.com/GingerKayK/status/918807588741042176
https://twitter.com/Sheezer96/status/918826979729686530
https://twitter.com/dmb1031/status/918729791586603008
https://twitter.com/MelissaCole/status/918738552451686400
https://twitter.com/sissyknits/status/918840401762582534