{"id":5946,"date":"2017-10-14T10:54:46","date_gmt":"2017-10-14T05:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/?p=5946"},"modified":"2017-10-14T10:54:46","modified_gmt":"2017-10-14T05:24:46","slug":"womenboycotttwitter-the-day-after","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calamur.org\/gargi\/2017\/10\/14\/womenboycotttwitter-the-day-after\/","title":{"rendered":"#WomenBoycottTwitter: The Day After"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"twitter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

#WomenBoycottTwitter was on the 13th of October<\/strong><\/a>. Many women i know, and a fair few men, stayed off twitter, to protest against (non transparent rules) that suspend those who protest against violence, and spare those who do, or threaten to do violence.<\/p>\n

It is almost as though the suspension of Rose McGowan, from posting, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Women across the board have complained about rape threats, murder, personal vilification, morphed images floating around – as ‘humorous’ memes.\u00a0 And nothing has happened. Personally i didn’t expect too much of the boycott – but, i joined in out of solidarity, and because i believe that extremely violent ideologies are using the rules of free speech against the rest of us. And, most of us, because we believe in free speech, are nudging to make space for calls for hatred and ‘otherisation’ – i have seen tweets to a jewish person talking about the efficacy of gas chambers<\/strong><\/a>. and, i have seen tweets to black people in words that will make you cringe.\u00a0 I have heard slurs about dalits, and women. Muslims, and Hindus. About pretty much every grouping you can think about. Vitriolic vileness. Stuff that is so bad, that Microsoft shut down it’s AI chat bot,<\/strong><\/a> which went from relative innocence, to being a hard core bigot in a span of 15 hours.<\/p>\n

But nothing has happened to shut down hate at that level. But, voices like you and I – people who neither say nor do violence – can be shut down, because the haters move in packs, and we walk alone.\u00a0 And, ‘we’ is not ideology specific.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, we walked together. Again it was not, for me, based on ideology. It is based on showing my acute displeasure to corporates who want me as consumer, but dont’ protect my rights.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of #WomenBoycottTwitter, @jack (Jack Dorsey<\/strong><\/a>, who is CEO, and cofounder of twitter, had this to say (or tweet)<\/p>\n

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1\/ We see voices being silenced on Twitter every day. We\u2019ve been working to counteract this for the past 2 years.<\/p>\n

\u2014 jack (@jack) October 14, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n