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Rose McGowan’s Twitter suspension makes her an unlikely conservative hero

Are we missing the bigger picture here?

Photo of Samantha Grasso

Samantha Grasso

Rose McGowan

The internet is raising hell over Twitter‘s 12-hour restriction of Rose McGowan’s account that followed her outrage over the decades-long allegations of assault against Harvey Weinstein.

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From critics taking issue with Twitter’s attack on someone who encountered Weinstein herself, to others wondering how McGowan‘s thoughts were more deserving of silence than nuclear threats tweeted by a world leader, some of the most surprising corners of rage came from conservatives bashing the tech company’s act of censorship.

While Twitter said McGowan’s account activity was restricted—not suspended as she originally shared—12 hours for violating the platform’s terms of service by tweeting a private phone number, conservative Twitter slammed the service for appearing to silence someone speaking out on the alleged sexual harassment.

Ann Coulter‘s tweet implied that NBC, which allegedly attempted to squelch Ronan Farrow’s story on Weinstein several times, was behind the account activity.

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Far-right activist Jack Posobiec shared several tweets on the topic, from expressing a lack of surprise on Twitter’s action, to insinuating that McGowan’s an anti-Hollywood truther who needs to be interviewed by Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

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https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/918362528824152064

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/918468913775693824

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/918484739685789697

Meanwhile, far-right conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich shared an article on McGowan’s account restrictions, no commentary included.

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https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/918356327591690240

InfoWars‘ Paul Joseph Watson chimed in, too.

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Even the account for conservative Reddit rabbit hole /r/The_Donald appeared to side with McGowan’s supporters.

https://twitter.com/thedonaldreddit/status/918497596271771650

However, despite the spike in outrage seeming to support sexual assault survivors, it moreso appeared that much of the right’s outrage stemmed from Twitter’s apparent disregard for “freedom of speech,” as well as the censorship of allegations implicating a powerful Hollywood liberal and Democrat donor.

Radio host and former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh made this abundantly clear, conflating McGowan’s situation to the pushback conservatives feel when confronted by liberals online.

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The same goes for Posobiec, who took issue with Twitter’s lack of action taken toward President Donald Trump‘s supporters who had their contact information or address shared publicly through the platform. For Posobiec, there is no equivalency between the allegations brought against Weinstein and those made against Trump last year.

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https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/917788977234694145

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/918518461269147648

Since the New York Times posted the first round of allegations on Oct. 5, Coulter has ripped into Weinstein and liberals’ apparently hypocritical support of the disgraced producer over their critique of similar harassment and assault allegations against Trump.

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Meanwhile, Coulter’s previous tweets about Trump don’t vilify him for the Hollywood Access tapes in which he bragged about grabbing women “by the pussy.”

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Watson, too, saw little comparison between the allegations made against Weinstein and Trump. However, while he references the Hollywood Access tape, he does not mention the tens of accounts of sexual harassment or assault made against the president across several decades.

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While removing sexual predators from positions of power should be a bipartisan goal, it would appear that those vilifying Weinstein and his former supporters are more concerned with proving liberals are hypocrites over protecting and believing the accounts of survivors. Perhaps Friday’s Twitter protest against the company’s restriction on McGowan’s account might better separate those elevating the voices of Weisntein’s accusers over trolls using them to prove a point.

 
The Daily Dot