The day of inaction has been called in protest at the ‘silencing’ of female voices on the platform with Gallop leading the charge amidst heightened awareness of disparity between sexes in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal.
Many other prominent Twitter users have also led the call to abandon the platform for the day including celebrities such as Anna Paquin, John Cusack and McGowan's former co-star on the series Charmed, Alyssa Milano.
McGowan is one of Weinstein’s victims having settled a 1997 sexual harassment case for $100k but has recently come back to the fore with an allegation that Ben Affleck lied when he claimed to have no knowledge of Weinstein’s behavior.
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At the time the truncated social platform insisted that “Twitter is proud to empower and support the voices on our platform, especially those that speak truth to power. We stand with the brave women and men who use Twitter to share their stories, and will work hard every day to improve our processes to protect those voices.”
This proved too little too late for many women (and men) however who rallied to the #WomenBoycottTwitter banner to share their displeasure.