In case you didn’t know, Janet Bloomfield is fucking awesome. I got to talk to her a little bit on Twitter back at the beginning of GamerGate, and she’s written for the site, been featured here in news stories, etc. She has her own site as well, and I appreciate the shoutout she gave me yesterday. But this is about Twitter. They’ve been keeping her off the service unjustly for many months now. The following is an open letter from Janet to the powers-that-be at the San Francisco based social media giant. Hopefully it does some good.

OPEN LETTER by Janet Bloomfield

My account has never participated in targeted abuse, unless Twitter thinks tweeting the actual words of a feminist back at her constitutes abuse.

Let me explain to you how Twitter works, and how the recent reddit revolt and ousting of CEO Ellen Pao can happen at Twitter, too. Eventually, Twitter will allow the suspension of someone much more important than they anticipate, and users will protest by deleting their accounts, causing a massive drop both in users and tweets. Four or five million followers plus accounts can account for a dramatic amount of traffic, and Twitter is no different than reddit in that your users are volunteers and they can volunteer elsewhere, if you piss them off enough.

Twitter, like reddit, is a modern Colosseum where spectators gather to watch gladiators battle. Those battles do not constitute ‘abuse’ or ‘harassment’ – they are the reason people use Twitter! Twitchy.com has built a whole enterprise out of finding the best *facepalms* and comebacks – distilling the best of Twitter into one site. Twitchy understands your business, and you apparently don’t. Costolo and his ill-advised partnership with WAM and dedication to eradicating ‘trolls’ is the exact opposite of what you should be doing. The ‘trolls’ are what make Twitter entertaining, and prompt users to come back multiple times a day, RT, engage and use the site. Costolo couldn’t grow the site because he doesn’t understand what makes Twitter fun.

The crybaby feminists who can’t come up with any good comebacks and offer up some of the best *facepalms* by being so fascist, controlling and just plain stupid are bawling that Twitter isn’t a safe space for them and doesn’t provide a hugbox where no one ever gets offended by anything ever. You’re letting the joyless #NoFunAllowed brigade to ban users that provide the essence of Twitter.

That’s dumb.

No one goes to the Colosseum to watch adults use crayons, eat cookies and watch puppy videos.

If you can’t learn what Twitter is, what it does, and why it’s so much fun, you will kill it. It’s that simple.

Restore and verify my account @JudgyBitch1. Before you do, go and look at my tweets and note which side is hurling abuse, insults, ad hominems, threats and sulking away in a cloud of butthurt. Guess what?

Those are the people you want gone from Twitter. Make a mistake, and pay the consequences. Your users will revolt. It won’t end well.

Ask Chairman Pao.

Sincerely,

Janet Bloomfield

#WomenAgainstFeminism