On Thursday night, women across Twitter shot off their final tweets of the day, posted one last message about their intent to be offline all of Friday, and closed up shop.
https://twitter.com/raqueldesigns/status/918647460163129344
Tomorrow (Friday the 13th) will be the first day in over 10 years that I won’t tweet. Join me. #WomenBoycottTwitter pic.twitter.com/xoEt5Bwj5s
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 13, 2017
These women have chosen to stand with Rose McGowan in response to Twitter locking her account for 12 hours after her days-long callouts of disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein and his purported enablers, including Ben Affleck. Twitter explained it took action because McGowan tweeted out a private phone number. However, sexual assault advocates pointed to the company’s hypocrisy in censoring McGowan’s account but doing little to prevent repeated harassment of women and hate speech on the platform.
So women said, enough is enough, and launched the hashtag #WomenBoycottTwitter, vowing to spend all of Friday off the website. Male allies joined, too, in a move to promote solidarity and amplify McGowan’s story.
Tomorrow I follow the Women. #WomenBoycottTwitter
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) October 13, 2017
However on Friday, some women were still on Twitter, explaining why they decided to forgo the boycott. Some found irony in the style of protest—Twitter had silenced McGowan’s ideas, so what use did other women have in removing their voices from the conversation to prove a point to the corporation?
https://twitter.com/Mom101/status/918800395299848195
Others explained why silence, for them, was not an option. Regardless of the intent of the boycott, women expressed that they didn’t agree with the impact the boycott might have on conversations solely centered on sexual assault.
As a sexual assault survivor, I can’t participate in #womenboycottwitter & be quiet. We can’t continue to be silent. We have to be louder.
— Cassi (@cassi_taylor422) October 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/Sheezer96/status/918826979729686530
https://twitter.com/caponeagain/status/918825446418124800
For women of color, however, critiques of the boycott were more pointed, and with good reason—where was this boycott of Twitter when the company did nothing to alleviate, if not eliminate, the years of harassment that Black women have faced on the platform?
Oh so it’s #WomenBoycottTwitter day. Does that mean Black women can tweet today without our threads being stolen for article titles?
— Optimus Fine (@sunnydaejones) October 13, 2017
Silence won’t save us. It might work for some white women, but Black girls have to yell. Or we’ll get run over & everyone will ignore it.
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) October 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/rgay/status/918714270862340097
Read the whole thread. And as a woman of color who wants to protect the ACA, i’ll be on twitter tomorrow. https://t.co/vdUy4YX7Ot
— HawaiiDelilah™ (@HawaiiDelilah) October 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/eveewing/status/918687376691511296
I understand the calls of solidarity w/ assault victims, but women of color RARELY engender this type of solidarity and that’s some B.S. https://t.co/ufJckERVmJ
— Britni Danielle (@BritniDWrites) October 13, 2017
When Milo Yiannopoulos encouraged racist trolls to attack Leslie Jones‘s account last summer, where were the droves of women using their social media clout to shame Twitter into acting? Where were the protests when Fifth Harmony’s Normani Kordei also received an onslaught of racist hatred, causing her to leave the site? And most recently, as ESPN’s Jemele Hill continues to serve a two-week ESPN suspension for her tweets on boycotting advertisers, why have women not shown her the same level of solidarity given to McGowan, all while the President of the United States bashes Hill on the same platform?
https://twitter.com/BlairImani/status/918680741524881409
How come #WomenBoycottTwitter didn’t take off when @Lesdoggg was being attacked? #askingforafriend
— ris (@rissaoftheway) October 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/ava/status/918718017030168578
I am not boycotting. I am supremely pissed off with @Twitter and supremely pissed off with the selective action & anger of this boycott.
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) October 13, 2017
Instead of ruminating on Twitter’s and its users’ longstanding inaction regarding racism, women not partaking in the boycott are actively demonstrating on the platform by using the hashtags #WOCAffirmation, #BoostWOC, and #AmplifyWomen to promote their own work and the work of women yet to be recognized.
As a queer WoC and a survivor of sexual assault, you’re not gonna shut me up. You’re not gonna shut any of us up. #AmplifyWomen
— Alex is tired of seeing Takes™ 🖖🏽🏴☠️🏝🔪 (@Chatvert) October 13, 2017
Some amazing women you should follow today #AmplifyWomen@AngryBlackLady@ParkerMolloy@LibyaLiberty@AkilahObviously
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) October 13, 2017
https://twitter.com/literElly/status/918837634998439937
The hashtag I’ll be using is #WOCAffirmation. Shout out sistas that are doing the damn thing. Promote them. Hit me so I can RT. Lift us up.
— April (@ReignOfApril) October 13, 2017
Black woman journalist. I write daily for @TheRoot. I bring news and important information to our people. #WOCAffirmation
— first of all, bitch, … (Yeah Mo!) (@thejournalista) October 13, 2017
im a comedian. left my tv show in Chi to escape a stalker. been in NYC 2 weeks trying to restart my career! #WOCAffirmation clips in reply pic.twitter.com/FnseU98drA
— Becca O’Neal 🍒 (@becca_oneal) October 13, 2017
While I support the reasoning for #womenboycottwitter , I feel it’s detrimental to the overall point. Our voice is important!#AmplifyWomen pic.twitter.com/raj7RCbbRd
— Joanne Tyler 🏴🏳️🌈 (@x__BadWolf__x) October 13, 2017
Regardless of how women chose to demonstrate on Friday, a deeper look into the trolls celebrating the #WomenBoycottTwitter hashtag proved how necessary it is that the conversation extends beyond the day of division.
https://twitter.com/2Run26/status/918894463128182785
https://twitter.com/American1765/status/918875120210505728
https://twitter.com/LadyLSpeaks/status/918870485722595328
