A Platform Boycott Is Not Self-Silencing

#WomenBoycottTwitter was aimed at the platform — and Twitter’s not the only outlet for your voice, anyway.

In light of repeated harassment on Twitter — and particularly fed up with Twitter’s utter failure at sufficient policing — women led a boycott of the platform today in protest. Unfortunately, too many with sympathy for the cause did not understand the point of or reasoning behind the boycott — or were simply unable to pull themselves away for the day. Accusations of self-silencing and hypocrisy abounded, exploited by the very harassers who were the focus of protest in order to drive further divisions in the anti-harassment camp.

Twitter is a platform. Any money it makes is through advertisements. Advertising rates are based on the number of impressions and users on the site. As @slpng_giants’s #GrabYourWallet campaign has demonstrated, cutting off ad revenue is the surest way to make corporations pay attention and heed demands.

By boycotting the platform for one day, the #WomenBoycottTwitter campaign shows corporate Twitter what will happen if they continue to do nothing about harassment: victims of harassment and their allies will disengage, reducing Twitter’s advertising rates and thus its profits.

Staying on Twitter for the day to “be loud” or “fight back” isn’t going to help. Why would Twitter take your concerns seriously if you keep using the platform as-is — or even more? I’m reminded of a scene from Howard Stern’s Private Parts movie (as illustration, not as endorsement for Stern; he’s a pig):

Researcher: The average radio listener listens for eighteen minutes a day. The average Howard Stern fan listens for — are you ready for this? — an hour and twenty minutes.

Kenny: How could this be?

Researcher: Answer most commonly given: “I want to see what he’ll say next.”

Kenny: All right, fine. But what about the people who hate Stern?

Researcher: Good point. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day.

Kenny: But… if they hate him, why do they listen?

Researcher: Most common answer: “I want to see what he’ll say next.”

If you continue to use Twitter despite the harassment, if you give no indication to Twitter as a corporation that you’ll ever stop using the platform, they have no reason to change. Just as hate-listening to Howard Stern didn’t get his show cancelled, Twitter will continue to use your impressions to set ad rates whether you love or hate Twitter’s policies. Twitter simply doesn’t care about your opinion as long as you use the platform. A pageview is a pageview is a pageview.

If we show them what it means for women and allies to leave the platform en masse, that fear of lost profits can spark change. Sad as it is, we don’t get to choose which tactics are successful. I wish that speaking up was the best way to get Twitter to pay attention and do something about the rampant harassment, but unfortunately it simply isn’t; it has not worked at all to date.

The best way to make change in our capitalist system?

Grab them by the wallet.