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Twitter has abruptly broken its own policy of not commenting on individual accounts to explain why it temporarily suspended the account of actress Rose\u00a0McGowan<\/a> late yesterday, after she had been tweeting about allegations of sexual abuse and harassment which have been surfacing against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.<\/p>\n Earlier today we asked Twitter why it had suspended McGowan\u2019s account<\/a> and it declined to provide an explanation, saying it does not comment on individual accounts \u201cfor privacy and security reasons\u201d.<\/p>\n Yet now the Twitter Safety<\/a> account has publicly\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0to say McGowan\u2019s account was \u201ctemporarily locked because one of her Tweets included a private phone number, which violates our Terms of Service\u201d \u2014 apparently selectively breaking its own rule about not commenting on individual accounts.<\/p>\n (Update: McGowan has responded to Twitter\u2019s explanation on her newly unfrozen account, pointing out that President Trump\u2019s Twitter account may very well violate Twitter\u2019s rules against inciting violence:<\/p>\n when will nuclear war violate your terms of service? https:\/\/t.co\/72FiiyoZ59<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) October 12, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n At this point it would appear that Twitter\u2019s sense of irony runs very deep indeed. And\/or its store of hypocrisy. Because, as others have previously pointed out<\/a>, the company has long used a policy of not commenting on individual accounts to shield itself from accountability \u2014 e.g. from criticism that it\u2019s providing a platform to nazis and white supremacists.<\/p>\n Yet now, in this instance when it\u2019s facing a high profile storm of criticism<\/a> for selectively silencing McGowan (a verified Twitter user with more than 750k followers) and for simultaneously failing to silence the abuse flowing over its own platform, it\u2019s suddenly okay breaking its own rule as it tries to extricate itself from blame and criticism that it\u2019s also complicit in enabling the abuse of women.<\/p>\n Safe to say, this really is what leading from behind looks like.<\/p>\n But let\u2019s not forget we\u2019ve already seen Twitter\u00a0ban one particular notorious troll<\/a> yet\u00a0defend the right of another to make violent threats<\/a>, even as armies of misogynistic and racist trolls continue to roam its platform with near impunity exactly because Twitter has handed the burden of\u00a0responsibility <\/a>for blocking and reporting racism, hate speech, misogyny and so on off to individual Twitter users.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another little irony you\u2019ll find retweeted into the Twitter Safety feed right now:<\/p>\n In its series of three longer-than-140char tweets<\/a> regarding McGowan\u2019s suspension, Twitter does say it will be \u201cclearer about these policies and decisions in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n But it also goes on to claim to be \u201cproud to empower and support the voices on our platform, especially those that speak truth to power\u201d.<\/p>\n So \u2014 in tone of voice at least \u2014 Twitter appears, once again, to be hunkering down and digging into its default position of defending all speech, i.e. including abusive, hateful speech.<\/p>\n Which is exactly the kind of inflexible perspective that has led to its ongoing failure to drive abusers off its platform \u2014 thereby contributing, inexorably, to the bullying and harassment of women (and others).<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has also tweeted to flag the Twitter Safety apologia, reiterating that: \u201cWe need to be a lot more transparent in our actions in order to build trust.\u201d<\/p>\n ?? thread. We need to be a lot more transparent in our actions in order to build trust. https:\/\/t.co\/7T6aliOXmG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 jack (@jack) October 12, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n And while more transparency certainly sounds<\/em> like a good idea, if it\u2019s just going to be more selective transparency \u2014 as Twitter has deployed in this instance \u2014 that\u2019s hardly going to engender a new dawn of trust in its actions.<\/p>\n Moreover, if the company\u2019s leadership continues to let its platform be weaponized by co-ordinated groups of abusers to conduct targeted harassment against anyone they choose then it will find large swathes of its user-base continue to view it with mistrust \u2014 if they don\u2019t just up sticks and ditch Twitter entirely.<\/p>\n Saying you\u2019re \u2018good people<\/a>\u2018 yet doing nothing to fix a major abuse problem is the story of Twitter\u2019s current leadership (and likely contributes to the growth problem bogging down its business<\/a>).<\/p>\n And, well, we all know how that tale ends.<\/p>\n YOU ALL KNEW pic.twitter.com\/5l1t2HWxgT<\/a><\/p>\n\n
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