It’s Women’s History Month and to honor this month Twitter created a new campaign, #HereWeAre which is meant to celebrate the power of women and to uplift women.
Now even though the ad’s intentions were genuine, it was met with lots of harsh criticism. During the Oscars this past Sunday night (Mar, 4th) a one-minute clip aired that featured an array of influential women including Issa Rae and Ava DuVernay.
We stand with women around the world to make their voices heard and their presence known. To bring them front and center, today and every day. Join us as we say #HereWeArehttps://t.co/bVXGJ1NibP
— Twitter (@Twitter) March 5, 2018
This was the first time the Academy has ever had its own commercial. Shot in black and white, the ad promoted themes of diversity and women empowerment. After the airing of the clip many were outraged and called Twitter out on its hypocrisy, many felt as questioned how the social media site can stand in solidarity with women when they constantly allow anti-women rhetoric on their platform daily.
This #HereWeAre Twitter commercial just gave me chills. That was stunning.
Now. Twitter, we shall await your continued work to make this platform safer for women who look like those in that commercial.
— Luvvie is the #ProfessionalTroublemaker. PREORDER. (@Luvvie) March 5, 2018
And for @Twitter to have the unmitigated GALL to treat it like it is some kind of Homeric heroes journey that it has been so bad rather than a neglect and disrespect for women who don’t get soft gel photos ? Is why we are here #hereweare
— 🇬🇾🗽Oracle at Dead Ass🇬🇾 🗽 (@Blackamazon) March 5, 2018
RT if you’re a woman who has reported abuse/threats to @twitter and they told you they weren’t going to do anything about it. #HereWeAre
— Erin Matson (@erintothemax) March 5, 2018
TEDtalks editor took to Twitter to express her thoughts on the ad stating:
“How about you spend the money you used on this ad to hire moderators to kick accounts that terrorize women off your platform? How about you hire more engineers who aren’t men to build your platform so that you don’t have giant blind spots putting users at risk?”
A study conducted back in 2015 about 88 percent of social media harassments occur on Twitter. Now we all know that social media opens a Pandora’s box of all types of harassments most of the negative comments are targeted towards women. Twitter has taken some steps to prevent cyber-bullying, but many feel as though Twitter has a long way to go.
