Twitter has offered an explanation as to why it temporarily locked Rose McGowan out of her account at the height of the Harvey Weinstein controversy.
The Charmed star has been vocal about being mistreated by the Hollywood producer, as have fellow Hollywood stars like Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Cara Delevingne, Ashley Judd, Lea Seydoux and several others.
However, it was McGowan who was temporarily blocked from tweeting while leading the charge against Weinstein on Wednesday. In the hours before her suspension, she'd also been critical of Ben Affleck — whose past conduct has been called into question as well.
Taking to Instagram, she posted a notice she'd received from Twitter explaining that her account had been locked for 12 hours because her tweets had violated the social network's rules. No specific violations were cited.
Alongside the screengrab, she wrote: "TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE MY VOICE. #ROSEARMY #whywomendontreport"
It took several hours for Twitter to unlock McGowan's account, but now the social media giant has claimed that its decision to temporarily block the actress from posting was not related to her remarks against Weinstein or Affleck.
"We have been in touch with Ms. McGowan's team," a Twitter statement began. "We want to explain that her account was temporarily locked because one of her Tweets included a private phone number, which violates our Terms of Service.
"The Tweet was removed and her account has been unlocked. We will be clearer about these policies and decisions in the future.
"Twitter is proud to empower and support the voices on our platform, especially those that speak truth to power. We stand with the brave women and men who use Twitter to share their stories, and will work hard every day to improve our processes to protect those voices."
McGowan challenged that explanation when her account was reactivated, by pointing up Donald Trump's recent threats about starting a nuclear war with North Korea.
"When will nuclear war violate your terms of service?" she asked.
McGowan has been vocal in encouraging her followers to "amplify" the allegations against Weinstein. However, she also asked those on her side to "go easy" on Lindsay Lohan, who actually defended the one-time mogul once the accusations were widespread.
