As we reported earlier this week, Leslie Jones was the target of some vicious attacks on Twitter. The Ghostbusters star and Saturday Night Live cast member is an avid user of the platform, but she was besieged by racist messages from the kind of assholes who have the time and malice to engage in such things. It appeared to many that she had quit the site entirely, but, as she told Seth Meyers on Late Night, she’s not afraid of those jerks.
In the midst of calling out all the bigoted bullshit being dumped on her timeline, Jones asked Twitter to intervene. The social media company eventually took decisive action, permanently banning several accounts, including that of Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos. Jones explained to Meyers that she brought the matter before Twitter because she felt targeted, not just because people generally post mean things online—she’s all too familiar with the insults. So Jones hasn’t exiled herself from the platform, she’s just not suffering the abuse in silence. As she reminds everyone watching: “Hate speech and freedom of speech are two different things.”