Twitter explains why they temporarily banned Harvey Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan

Twitter may have banned the wrong person, for once, as their arbitrary rules system kicked in on Hollywood star Rose McGowan, just as she was getting the hashtag #Rosearmy rolling. Rose is spearheading a campaign to help victims of sexual assault and harassment, encouraging them to speak out against their abusers following the Harvey Weinstein abuse scandal. All good, right? Now who would want her suspended for that? Gee, I dunno. Perhaps some other stars and producers who much like Harvey, have a shady way about them. McGowan has inside knowledge on the Weinstein scandal after she herself reached a $100,000 settlement with the producer in 1997 following an incident at the Sundance Film Festival.

Ben Affleck fuck off

— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) October 10, 2017

Twitter, caught in a PR nightmare after the ban of Rose, reinstated her account today and tried to explain why it was temporarily banned on Twitter - a first after many other internet celebrities have been banned on the platform before. Ironically Rose McGowan got the news out about her ban on Instagram, giving them a momentary leg up on Twitter as a communications platform. She insinuated that the temporary ban had been triggered by people trying to silence her, saying; “TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE MY VOICE.” While McGowan was banned from Twitter, hundreds of thousands of fans speculated on whether the ban was due to her tweeting "fuck off" to Ben Affleck, and another tweet shortly after that claimed he was lying about not knowing about his long-time collaborator's misconduct. Just how deep is this pool of Hollywood slime?

@benaffleck “GODDAMNIT! I TOLD HIM TO STOP DOING THAT” you said that to my face. The press conf I was made to go to after assault. You lie.

— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) October 10, 2017

Twitter claims the reason she was banned was due to a Tweet containing a 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 our Terms of Service. 1/3

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) October 12, 2017

Twitter also promised more transparency in the future. This may be too little too late.

The Tweet was removed and her account has been unlocked. We will be clearer about these policies and decisions in the future. 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

Meanwhile, the Internet who seemingly never saw the creepy viral videos of 2004 where Ben Affleck basically molests Anne-Marie Losique, and another where he gropes Hilarie Burton on camera are turning on Ben and collectively realising that this kind of behaviour is commonplace in Hollywood. Ben Affleck has apologised to Hilarie Burton on Twitter, but since he also used the platform to denounce the actions of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, it rings hollow. The PR reps and hush-money lawyers in Hollywood will have a very very busy time these coming months cleaning up the mess made here.

I acted inappropriately toward Ms. Burton and I sincerely apologize

— Ben Affleck (@BenAffleck) October 11, 2017

I didn't forget.

— Hilarie Burton (@HilarieBurton) October 10, 2017