It's the social media trend which takes inspiration from a teen horror film, and quickly became a very real horror for young girls and women across America and the globe in yet another display of "revenge porn".
The #twitterpurge hashtag was created to coincide with the release of The Purge: Anarchy, a sequel to last year's The Purge. The film's premise is that for one night of the year all crime is legal.
A teenager in the Santa Clarita Valley area of San Francisco set up a number of Twitter accounts and the hashtag #twitterpurge to try to replicate the anything-goes phenomenon on the social networking site.
But the trend, which peaked on the night of the film's 19th July release, was quickly hijacked by users posting nude photos of ex-girlfriends, (in some cases including the targets' Twitter handles, or in other cases, subtweeting).
"Revenge porn" has become a significant problem in a culture where 18% of students have reported sending nude pictures to others. Dedicated websites have cropped up to host these pictures cropped up to host these pictures (one of the most prolific was started by the internet personality Hunter Moore). The effect on women is humiliation, breakdown, ruined lives and in some cases, suicide.
In November of last year, a 17-year old Brazilian girl killed herself after nude photographs were published online, and in 2012 Canadian high school student Amanda Todd killed herself after topless pictures of her were circulated on Facebook.
Twitter removed the original account under its child exploitation policy, but copycat accounts sprang up. As more and more pictures were spread, users deleted their accounts after being "exposed". Women were branded "thots" (a slang word for "slut"), and their nude pictures commented upon and retweeted. The practice soon spread to Facebook and Instagram.
Other users, however, fought back. Many expressed disgust for the misogyny and contempt for privacy on show:
Goes to show how quick people are to hop on the bandwagon for exposure.Twitter Purge is immature,ignorant and something many will glorify.
— C.T.F.™ (@CrisisTheFuture) July 20, 2014
How is #twitterpurge even a thing? This is horrible
— Noah (@GeensNoah) July 20, 2014
if you're participating in this #twitterpurge you are a horrible person. You're ruining someone's life and could push them to suicide.
— MeaganAnne♔ (@meagann_annee) July 20, 2014
why the hell is #twitterpurge actually a thing, that's so horrible.
— m a d e l i n e (@townsend_maddie) July 21, 2014
realest thing I've read all day #twitterpurge pic.twitter.com/ccEdvMvNzl
— Relatable (@JustReIatabIe) July 19, 2014
"@k4te_n4sh: waaaaay too long to fit on one tweet but my thoughts on the pathetic #twitterpurge trend pic.twitter.com/K1Ll9YlPTs"
— Logan's Queen❤ (@_TheTweetyBird) July 21, 2014
Urban Dictionary, surprisingly, fought back too:
The Twitter Purge comes just a week after a picture of a 16-year-old girl who was raped at a party was mocked and trended on Twitter, eventually becoming a meme. And as many pointed out, users tweeting pictures of people under 18 were liable for arrest under child pornography laws.
Some believe that legislation should be put place in to stop further tragedies occurring; 11 US states have criminalised revenge porn, while Canada, Brazil and Japan are taking similar steps. In the UK, the government has said it will look at introducing laws which will, campaigners hope, protect both women and men from this kind of abuse online.
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