Tech

Some women call for a boycott of Twitter after actress Rose McGowan is partially suspended

Key Points
  • #WomenBoycottTwitter is an arranged boycott of the Twitter service on Oct. 13.
  • People are calling on users not to use the service for one day because actress Rose McGowan's account was temporary limited for violating its policies.
  • McGowan has been tweeting in support of Harvey Weinstein's alleged sexual abuse victims and calling out other alleged Hollywood male sexual predators.
Some call for Twitter boycott after Rose McGowan is temporarily suspended
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Some call for Twitter boycott after Rose McGowan is temporarily suspended

Some people are calling for a boycott of Twitter on Friday, after the service partially suspended actress Rose McGowan for violating its terms and policies.

Early on Thursday morning, McGowan posted on Instagram that access to her Twitter account had been "limited" for violating the platform's rules, preventing her from tweeting, retweeting or responding to tweets. She was still allowed to send direct messages or read Twitter.

McGowan had been tweeting in support of women who had come forward with claims they had been sexually abused by powerhouse Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. She also called out other alleged Hollywood male sexual abusers.

Twitter addressed the ban in a series of tweets later Thursday morning, saying it was the result of McGowan including a personal phone number.

"We have been in touch with Ms. McGowan's team. We want to explain that her account was temporarily locked because one of her Tweets included a private phone number, which violates of 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," the company said in the tweeted statement.

"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," the statement said.

CEO Jack Dorsey retweeted the thread and said the company needs to be "a lot more transparent." Twitter's policy has previously been not to comment on individual accounts.

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In response to the temporary ban, several Twitter users pointed out the company's policies don't seem to be fairly enforced across all users.

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Some women and men have called for a boycott of Twitter.

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- CNBC's Sara Salinas contributed to this report.