Trump once boasted that he could shoot someone in a crowded street and not lose voters. He gets away with murder on Twitter every day too. Trump has used his personal account to incite harassment, and violence, and even to threaten a war.

But last night the Twitter Rules were apparently broken, and justice was swift, when Hollywood actor Rose McGowan tweeted that her co-star Ben Affleck was aware of film producer Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment history. McGowan also used the f-word in a tweet. And that was enough to get her account suspended.

Women, people of colour and LGBTQ people are harassed on Twitter night and day. Repeatedly reporting hate speech to Twitter gets them nowhere. And yet when a woman uses the f-word when talking about a serial sexual abuser she gets censored.

You don’t need to be a Twitter user to demand that the company enforce its terms of service fairly and stop abuse. In fact, pressure from outside of the platform -- from you and your friends -- could be exactly what’s needed to make the company finally change.

Tell Twitter’s CEO to apologise to Rose McGowan for suspending her account, and responsibly address Twitter’s harassment problem.

Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, has been under fire for years about the company’s disgraceful record of enabling harassment.It’s time that he took a real stand to tackle the harassers and abusers, rather than punishing those more likely to be on the receiving end. To do anything else enables abusers, just like the men around Harvey Weinstein who enabled him by remaining silent.

Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, says Trump gets a pass because his tweets are “newsworthy”. But the company has terms of service, guidelines and Rules, which are broken by harassers and internet trolls every day. It’s not good enough for Twitter’s bosses to say “we suck at dealing with abuse” -- they need to try and stop it.

After much cajoling, in July 2016, Twitter booted a far-right internet troll and former Breitbart editor, Milo Yiannopoulos for inciting his Twitter followers to harass “Ghostbusters” star Leslie Jones. But women, minorities, and specifically women of colour are still harassed on Twitter incessantly. Yesterday’s disgraceful decision to suspend Rose McGowan’s account has made the news today, so our petition could have an impact like never before.

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