1.7 million people from across 85 countries and counting..
Talking about nothing but the #metoo campaign, the movement it has become.
Announcing the new milestone to the movement Alyssa Milano and Tarana Burke debuted a custom Twitter emoji (that has three raising hands of different skin shades) earlier today.
"Standing side by side, together, our movement will only grow," Alyssa Milano tweeted today while Burke noted that “it's more than a moment, it's a movement."
The viral movement that was ignited by American actress, activist and producer Alyssa Milano on October 15 took off real quick when women across the globe shared online their stories of sexual abuse and harassment with the hashtag #metoo. According to The New York Times, the #metoo movement which seems to have been popularised by Milano actually began back in 2007 as part of Tarana Burke's Just Be Inc. nonprofit.
Within the first 24 hours of Milano’s tweet, the hashtag was retweeted nearly half a million times.
Reports say that Milano’s original tweet suggesting women to comment #metoo to exhibit how pervasive sexual assault is, got retweeted for more than 25k times.
The whole movement seems to have rocketed after the many sexual assault allegations against American film producer Harvey Weinstein coming to light making women across the globe feel compelled to prove that this kind of abuse was not exclusive to Tinseltown but to every part of the world.
Among the many celebrities including actors, activists and authors who used the hashtag to speak up and share their experiences were popular figures like Lady Gaga, Anna Paquin, Jenny Slate, Patricia Arquette among many others making the movement go on strong with each day.