The #MeToo hashtag was used in an enormous number of tweets

The social media campaign reveals the shocking prevalence of sexual harassment in our society

Following a week of more devastating and disturbing news about film producer Harvey Weinstein, Hollywood actor Alyssa Milano took to social media to ask women to share their own personal experiences of sexual harassment and sexual assault.

In a message posted Sunday, she asked Twitter users to reply “me too” to her tweet if they had been sexually harassed or assaulted in order to “give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.” They responded in droves and the resulting hashtag #MeToo swept round the internet as a huge viral moment.

Milano’s tweet was retweeted more than 17,000 times in 24 hours and on Sunday alone the #MeToo hashtag had been used 109,451 times, according to data from social analytics company Crimson Hexagon.

Section Spotlight