Ghostbusters actress, comedian, and Saturday Night Live cast member Leslie Jones is no stranger to conflict. However, after speaking up on her Twitter account about the racist hate she was receiving, internet trolls bullied her into silence.
Leslie recieved an overwhelming amount of vitriol on the social media site, including a fake account impersonating her that tweeted hateful messages, cruel comparisons to Harambe the gorilla, racist slurs – even someone calling her the source of AIDS.
The 48-year-old tweeted that one man sent her a video of himself screaming that he ‘hates n*****s.’ “Like no shame or compassion for human life It scares the f**k out of me!” Leslie tweeted.
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Leslie struggled to keep up with the hate, and used the incident to speak out about racism. Instead of ignoring the racists, she encouraged people to stand up to ignorance instead of remaining silent.
But I’m I that naive to think that some things was changing yes I was. We still live in a world where we have to say “black lives matter”
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
Stop saying ignore them or that’s just the way it is. Cause that’s bullshit. Everybody knows an asshole check them for their hate.
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
However, eventually even Leslie had enough. She revealed that she was leaving twitter. “You can hate the movie but the sh*t I got today…wrong.” She tweeted.
I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart.All this cause I did a movie.You can hate the movie but the shit I got today…wrong
— Leslie Jones (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey reached out to Leslie, inviting her to message him directly.
@Lesdoggg Hi Leslie, following, please DM me when you have a moment
— Jack (@jack) July 19, 2016
Twitter released a statement: “People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter, but no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others.”
“Over the past 48 hours in particular, we’ve seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of Tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension.”
Most notably, Twitter deleted the account of Milo Yiannopoulos, editor of right wing site Breitbart, for inciting the hate against Leslie. The message also cited previous “repeated warnings.” Milo is believed by many to be the ringleader of the hate campaign.
Milo maintains that he did not send any threats. “With the cowardly suspension of my account, Twitter has confirmed itself as a safe space for Muslim terrorists and Black Lives Matter extremists, but a no-go zone for conservatives.” He said in a statement.
Meanwhile, many other personalities expressed support for Leslie with the hashtag #LoveForLeslieJ. Anna Kendrick and Amber Rose were among those to cheer her on.
#LoveforLeslieJ @Lesdoggg we Love you girl and ur AMAZING!!! Send them haters to my page I’ll get em str8 for you ❤️❤️❤️
— Amber Rose (@DaRealAmberRose) July 19, 2016
Just left @Ghostbusters and had SO MUCH FUN! That sequence in the smoke was everything!! #AnswerTheCall #GirlsKickingAss #LoveForLeslieJ
— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) July 19, 2016
Freedom of speech is NOT freedom from consequences.@twitter @support #LoveforLeslieJ
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) July 19, 2016
