Now women who have received abusive messages on the social networking site are taking action – by boycotting Twitter for an entire day.
From 12.01am on Sunday 4th August until the stroke of midnight tonight, those observing the #twittersilence will not post a single message in a bid to get through to the owners of the site just how damaging they find the online abuse.
Writer Caitlin Moran came up with the 'trolliday' idea after witnessing activist Caroline Criado-Perez being bullied on Twitter following her successful campaign to lobby the Bank of England to put Jane Austin on the new £10 banknote.
Caitlin told her followers: "I'm going to be off until midnight on Sunday, except for Tweeting the hashtag #twittersilence #trolliday #bepolite".
The call to arms – or at least the call to shut down laptops and turn off monitors up and down the country – was taken up by a number of famous names, including Kirstie Allsopp who posted: "I've thought about it a great deal, and on balance I reckon #twittersilence is a good idea. I hated being abuse & it cannot be tolerated."
"In the wrong hands Twitter is malicious, hurtful and illegal"
ITV News broadcaster Alastair Stewart has joined the silent protest and noted in a blog post that while Twitter can be a powerful tool for discourse, it can also come at a price.
"In the right hands it is gold-dust; in the wrong hands it is malicious, hurtful and illegal," he wrote.
What do you think of the Twitter Silence? Is it a good way to hit back at online abuse, or does it let the trolls think they’ve won?