Noam Galai/WireImage(NEW YORK) — Celebrities and everyday Twitter users rallied to the cause of actress Rose McGowan late Thursday as they organized a 24-hour boycott of the website after the company suspended her account temporarily.
The hashtag #WomenBoycottTwitter was the No. 1 trending topic in the United States into Friday morning as women — and men — pledged to go silent on Friday.
McGowan, known for roles in Scream and the TV series Charmed, was briefly suspended from the service Wednesday over tweets about disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Twitter said in a statement that her account was suspended because she included a private phone number.
“We have been in touch with Ms. McGowan’s team,” Twitter’s statement read. “We want to explain that her account was temporarily locked because one of her Tweets included a private phone number, which violates our Terms of Service.
“The tweet was removed and her account has been unlocked. We will be clearer about these policies and decisions in the future.” Many users took issue with Twitter’s stated reason for suspending McGowan, noting that Donald Trump tweeted the phone number of Sen. Lindsey Graham in July 2015. And in November 2016, Lou Dobbs tweeted the phone number of a woman who accused Trump of groping. Neither was suspended.
Journalists Natalie Shure and Mikki Kendall said they had reported multiple times about their numbers being shared without Twitter acting.
After returning to Twitter, McGowan wrote, in complaints directed at Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, that “HW” raped her, an apparent reference to Weinstein. She confirmed she was referring to the co-founder of Miramax in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Thursday afternoon. Amazon Studios has two projects produced by The Weinstein Co. currently in development, and McGowan said she warned the head of Amazon Studios against getting involved with the company. “We are reviewing our options for the projects we have with The Weinstein Co.,” Amazon told The Hollywood Reporter this week.
McGowan reached a $100,000 settlement with Weinstein after an alleged incident in a hotel room at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997, The New York Times reported.
Weinstein has denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex. He was fired from his position with The Weinstein Co. earlier this week.
McGowan retweeted an account calling for the boycott — and using the hashtag — at 6:47 p.m. Thursday. The movement took off from there.
McGowan and quoted a tweet with the hashtag at midnight.
She hasn’t tweeted since 10:48 p.m. PT Thursday. Other celebrities jumped on the movement, including actress Alyssa Milano, model Chrissy Teigen, Roots bandleader Questlove, actor Mark Ruffalo, director Joss Whedon and actor Billy Eichner.
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