Millie Bobby Brown Vanishes From Twitter After Anti-Gay Memes

'Stranger Things' actress had been object of homophobic meme, hashtag campaign
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 14, 2018 9:40 AM CDT
Anti-Gay Memes May Have Forced Stranger Things Actor Off Twitter
Millie Bobby Brown is seen at the Dolby Theatre on March 25, 2018, in Los Angeles.   (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

She's taken on the Demogorgon, but Twitter trolls may have been too much. Variety reports that Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Eleven in the Netflix series Stranger Things, has either deactivated or deleted her @milliebbrown Twitter account, and it may be linked to a proliferation of memes painting the 14-year-old actress as being anti-gay (the BBC notes it's not clear the trolling was the cause of the account vanishing). Twitter users have been taking advantage of meme generators to take selfies and other pictures of Brown and include homophobic slurs alongside them, making it appear as if she's anti-gay. The Wrap notes that a #TakeDownMillieBobbyBrown hashtag also started making the rounds late last year and came back in full force at the beginning of June, which is Pride Month.

But there are some who say the memes started as an inside joke within the LGBT community. "The joke here seems to be that it's so wildly out of character and unbelievable for Millie Bobby Brown to act violently or intolerantly, that presenting her as such makes people laugh," Vulture notes. In reality, Brown has been a vocal advocate for gay rights (she wore an LGBT pin to the 2017 MTV Movie and TV Awards) and also has stood up against cyberbullying via her @milliestopshate handle. (For those who are already missing Millie online, that account is still up and running.) She's not the first female actress to defect from social media: Leslie Jones, Daisy Ridley, and, most recently, Kelly Marie Tran of Star Wars, have all left due to various forms of online harassment. (More Millie Bobby Brown stories.)

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