To see the current velocity of the Twitter outrage machine, look no further than the #BoycottABC hashtag, which went from being a liberal advocacy campaign to a pro-Trump censorship rallying cry in a matter of minutes.
It started on Tuesday morning when Roseanne Barr compared Valerie Jarrett, a black senior adviser to former president Obama, to an ape, tweeting "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." Barr was responding to a Twitter thread about a conspiracy theory that Jarrett had covered up CIA spying. She first defended the tweet, and then apologized over Twitter to Jarrett. "I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks," she wrote before announcing she was leaving Twitter.
As the racist tweet gained traction across Twitter, a campaign on the left began to put pressure on ABC to pull Barr's hit sitcom, which was revived this spring. #BoycottABC followed in the footsteps of similar past campaigns on the left; last year, for example, advocacy groups worked to pressure advertisers for Fox News host Sean Hannity (over his coverage of the sexual assault allegations against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore) and former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly (over sexual harassment allegations against him).
And so on Tuesday morning, #BoycottABC took off as an anti-racism protest.
She swears off Twitter when she does something wrong. Then comes back when things cool off. We need to show @ABCNetwork that racism is NEVER okay!!! #BoycottABC #BoycottRosanne Please get this trending! https://t.co/M1bculJMYz
A number of users noted they planned to cancel streaming subscriptions to the channel. "Your entire network, including your local stations, is dead to me while she remains at ABC," one said.
Dear @abc: I have deleted all my season passes to all ABC shows, and will not reinstate any so long as @therealroseanne appears on your network. Your entire network, including your local stations, is dead to me while she remains at @abc. #BoycottABC
Hundreds of tweets followed:
Because of @therealroseanne's recent vile racism, and because of @ABCNetwork's defense of her, I am calling for a wholesale #BoycottABC until they cancel her show. RT if you're with me. Attn @dennishhill1
Hey @ABCNetwork and @Disney I cut off ties w a family member for emailing me a “joke” likening Michelle Obama to an ape. Don’t kid yourself that it’ll be hard for me to show you the door and to encourage others to do the same. #BoycottABC
@BariAWilliams @therealroseanne @MARS0411 @385parkplace @SGTreport @ABCNetwork @blackishabc word. this is truly awful. To continue to let her have a show is deplorable. #BoycottABC
@ABCNetwork - Roseanne Barr has once again deleted a racist tweet. She thinks that erasing the words will erase her bigotry and hatred. It won’t. Screen shot right here. I’m still waiting for you to stand up to her and say enough is enough. Until then #BoycottABC https://t.co/wKT9LFY3AX
That is, until midday, when ABC responded. The network announced it had canceled Roseanne, calling her tweet "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values."
ABC has canceled #Roseanne.
After ABC's announcement, it took only minutes for the hashtag to completely change hands, switching from those denouncing racism on the left to pro-Trump and conservative accounts accusing ABC of partisan bias and censorship.
@Jamierodr10 I Hate @ABCNetwork and everything it stands for. I will never ever watch ABC again. #BoycottABC
In similar fashion, Roseanne defenders attempted to get the hashtag to go viral on social media to put pressure on ABC.
#boycottABC RT, copy paste, instagram, whatever, just spread the word. ABC can make retractions, apologies, but they cancel a massive hit for doing the same? It’s hypocritical at best.
Despite advocating for opposing goals, the pro- and anti-Roseanne #BoycottABC tweets were quite similar.
I never watched @ABCNetwork before @therealroseanne and now I won’t be watching ABC AGAIN! #BoycottABC
@therealroseanne When a liberal says it-it’s free speech. When a conservative says it-it’s racist!! #BoycottABC
@RyanAFournier If #Roseanne wasn't a #Trump supporter this would never been cancelled! #boycottABC
While it's normal for outrage to seesaw back and forth between partisan factions on Twitter, #BoycottABC is unique in that both sides waged war against the other under the same hashtag. As Renee DiResta, a computational propaganda researcher for the organization Data for Democracy, pointed out, it appeared as if the Roseanne defenders didn't even realize the left had been using the hashtag.
#BoycottABC, which the Left was running prior to 30 minutes ago, is now the preferred choice of the Right, which seemingly didn’t even know the other campaign was happening. It’s all filter bubbles and hashtag wars now.
While perhaps an extreme example, #BoycottABC neatly illustrates how closely the tactics of online political advocacy campaigns mirror each other. And as DiResta notes, the right's choice to take up the hashtag — which seems more motivated by laziness than a desire to co-opt — is an indicator of how little each group is listening to the other's rallying cries.
"It's all filter bubbles and hashtag wars now," DiResta tweeted.
CORRECTION
Valerie Jarrett's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.