Read on Twitter
Thread about @RhiannonV choosing to use the feature which stops those you don’t follow from directly replying to your tweets - & just the way she’s been forced to experience Twitter generally since airing her views on GRA reform.
Note: there are upsetting screenshots throughout https://twitter.com/RhiannonV/status/1272104047735119873
Note: there are upsetting screenshots throughout https://twitter.com/RhiannonV/status/1272104047735119873
In a few tweets recently Rhi has been one of many people who have chosen to stop replies. Some have reacted furiously to this. But there’s over a year’s worth of context in this case as to why a young mother may feel the need to use such a feature.
Firstly: we all know what a bonfire this app is, and how many people participating in many different discussions are forced to read anyone’s thoughts/views/opinions about them. Abuse and bullying on twitter is a known phenomenon, observed every day, and no one deserves it.
We also know how women, particularly young women, are disproportionately subject to such vitriolic abuse on twitter. No woman should experience this online. It’s been a major issue for years. If a woman decides to limit replies to her tweet - the question should be why?
In Rhi’s case, ever since she’s spoken up on here about GRA reform and her support for trans equality, she’s been regularly on receiving end of a lot of tweets about it. Not all are nasty, but many are. Others direct attention towards her, knowing her phone will blow up for days.
We’ve known Rhi for years and she’s one of the warmest, kindest people. The huge majority of those who’ve been tweeting at her for over a year have never met her. They are also anonymous accounts (I know some have reasons for this) so there’s an imbalance in the dynamic too.
The idea that anyone on this app must spend their time replying to every tweet directed at them is just weird. The first thing politicians and anyone in public life are told about social media is to be careful about how they use it & take steps to protect themselves.
This can be turning off your notifications for those you don’t follow back, not replying to tweets, or - now - limiting replies to your tweet. Some of the people tweeting at Rhi have done it for a long time now, regularly, and usually putting words in her mouth to vilify her.
It’s not isolated to twitter. Rhi’s been the subject of many threads on forums like Mumsnet for over a year and just this week was again featured on a far-right website called Red Pill. You can see why she’d take steps to protect her social media: “Being woke comes with a price”
Over the past year there’s been a growing & troubling trend of people tweeting things at Rhi which have been cause for worry. This is a snapshot. They’re always, obviously, untrue smears - but they whip up the idea that Rhi is a dangerous villain: “Her turn will come”
Imagine how frightening it is to open your twitter & see things like that? From anonymous accounts mostly. You have no idea who these people are, where they might be. Imagine you also have a young child who you often have to take with you to your public engagements.
When anyone is smeared like that on this app, others whip into a frenzy. The majority come from the same source: people who don’t agree with Rhi on GRA reform. Rhi is a young mother so when you see things like this elsewhere on the topic, vilifying her for her views is dangerous:
(Before anyone quote tweets to ask if I will condemn threats of violence from anyone else: yes. Any and all threats of violence, misogynistic abuse, or discussion of arming yourself in the event that you can attack another person, is deplorable)
Last year, Rhi had been very vocal about her past experience with miscarriage - in the hope that it would destigmatise for other women. When she fell pregnant again, she had to keep destressed. She came off twitter for a period & also asked people to cool off. Didn’t stop them.
When she was pregnant, she was still on the receiving end of hordes of tweets and comments across different websites encouraging people to “challenge” her. Like this, which suggests that “if the current pressure continues” then she might resign once she gave birth:
Rhi has to attend public engagements in her work, like many of us do. When she was pregnant, she attended & participated in public events where some turned up just to speak to her about things they’d read on twitter. One person told her that they’d “do time” for women’s rights.
It was around this time that Rhi turned off her notifications. What people don’t understand is that many of these anonymous accounts are run by people active on other forums, and they share tweets there, encourages other users to leave replies using their accounts too:
You don’t see this, and most of us don’t unless we look. You have no idea. But Rhi and the countless others who are the focus of things like this, experience the result. And it can feel overwhelming.
Again, most of those tweeting Rhi have never met her. They don’t know who she is. We do, and some of us around her have spent hours on the phone with her after her phone has blown up with notifications because she’s voiced an opinion on Twitter.
If @RhiannonV has chosen to use a feature which allows her to improve her experience of twitter, that is her choice. Yes, she is a public rep: and there are official channels someone can go through to contact her if need be. This app isn’t the beginning and end of conversation.
It may be difficult for some who spend their entire day on twitter - posting tweets about people they’ve never met because they disagree on an issue - to comprehend, but most of us do not spend our lives on this app.
Just a few months ago we were all tweeting #BeKind Today, a young mother is being castigated because she has chosen to use a feature on this app which she has every right to use. By many of the same accounts who have spent over a year vilifying her. Give it a rest.
And if you are one of the accounts blowing a gasket today because you can’t continue to directly tweet at a young woman about GRA reform on this app, maybe pause for a second and remember that not everything is about you. You have no idea what else she has experienced online.
Ps: have blacked out the usernames of those who have sent those tweets, because unlike them, we still have our humanity and don’t want to target any traffic towards them.
