Boycott Twitter: Women across the world abandon site after it bans Rose McGowan

The decision came after Rose McGowan, who has been outspoken in her criticism of the fallout from the Harvey Weinstein affair, was kicked off the site

Rose McGowan had called on her followers to 'be her voice' (Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images)

Women around the world are boycotting Twitter in protest.

Users of the site are committing not to use it for one day, or more, in protest partly at the way it has treated Rose McGowan. The actress had been using the site to share information about the Harvey Weinstein affair – but then was mysteriously banned from using it.

Now users are refusing to go onto the site, in the hope that it will damage it. The action is being taken "In solidarity w @rosemcgowan and all the victims of hate and harassment Twitter fails to support," according to the engineer that proposed it.

It's still not clear why Ms McGowan was kicked off the site, or what tweet or tweets had led to her suspension. But it came soon after she had told Ben Affleck to "f*** off".

In a message posted on her Instagram, she wrote: "Twitter has suspended me. There are powerful forces at work. Be my voice".

The idea to stop using the site soon after appears to have first been proposed by software engineer Kelly Ellis. Her message went on to be shared more than 2,600 times.

And it was taken up by many of the sites most popular users. Chrissy Teigen posted a series of messages, for instance, in which she made clear that she intended to stop using the site for a day – not just because of Rose McGowan's case, but because Twitter has ruled out blocking Donald Trump from using the site.

Twitter has said that Donald Trump will be allowed to keep using the site – despite apparently breaking a number of its terms of service – because his posts on it are newsworthy.