After receiving hostile Twitter messages over her role in the Ghostbusters remake, SNL cast member Leslie Jones met with the sites CEO, Jack Dorsey, who removed numerous users accounts. On Thursday, Jones explained to Seth Meyers that she took action because of the gang mentality the website fosters.
The insults didnt hurt me, she said. Unfortunately, Im used to the insults What scared me was the injustice of a gang of people jumping against you for such a sick cause. Its like everybody has an opinion, and it all comes at you at one time. They really believe in what they believe in, and its so mean. Its so gross and mean and unnecessary.
It was one of those things like if I hadnt said anything, nobody would have ever known about this, she said. All those people still would have an account. When I approached Facebook, they was on it. Twitter, I was on them. Its like, Thats my favorite restaurant. I love the food there. Three people just got shot in front of me. Yall need to get some security.'
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On Monday, Jones tweeted, I leave Twitter tonight with tears and a very sad heart. All this cause I did a movie. You can hate the movie but the shit I got today wrong. But she clarified to Meyers that she never planned to quit for good. I did not leave Twitter, she said. I just signed out because I wanted to deal with what was going on. I went to bed, and I woke the next morning, and I was like, They said I left Twitter! Wait, I didnt leave!'
The host said he hoped Jones actions marked the beginning of some progress toward what happens on Twitter. The comedian agreed, ending with one final message to the lingering haters: Hate speech and freedom of speech: two different things.
In a lighter segment, Jones joined Meyers to watch chef Carlo Mirarchi cook a king crab. Horrified by the still-alive creature and grossed out by everything on the table, Jones knocked back sips of a gin-heavy drink. White people will eat anything, she joked.