Open letter to @twitter from Female Fed Up With Feminism

Dear Twitter,

I would first like to make it clear that I do not wish to silence anyone or deprive them of their rights. I fully believe that men and women deserve equal rights – I just don’t feel that as a woman I need an ‘ism’ to prove it.

I am writing as I feel that it is important to make you aware that those organising and taking part in the twittersilence protest do not necessarily represent the views of all women, and wish you to take this into consideration when making any future policy changes.

Please do not let the debate as to what should and should not be allowed on your website be dictated by the feminist agenda. If any other ideology were asking to be the judge of the parameters of free speech on the internet that would be stopped – please do not bestow preferential treatment here as this would be unfair to many other groups and opinions and set a disturbing precedent.

Of course, the issue of balancing freedom of speech with the protection of individuals from harassment is greatly important, and because social media are evolving so rapidly the rules and regulations need to be constantly debated and reassessed. However, we have laws to deal with this. Please let these decisions be made in a calm and collected way by groups of experts, which ought to include or at least take account of the testimony of legal experts, law makers, democratically elected members of government, philosophers, human rights groups, consumer groups and technological experts.

I believe that these rules should be arrived at via a democratic process which involves both philosophy and practicality – not via the agenda of any one particular group.

Yours Faithfully

Elena Rider