Lena Dunham has announced that she no longer uses Twitter and now has somebody else posting updates on her behalf, citing a recent barrage of what she describes as “verbal abuse”.

The ‘Girls’ creator, who also recently suggested that the hit HBO show would end after a sixth season, was speaking to Kara Swisher on the ‘Re/code Decode’ radio podcast. She said earlier this year that she no longer had Twitter on her phone, but that she still composed tweets and sent them to a friend who was posting in her place, saying “we gotta create systems that make us feel safe”.

However, she’s now elaborated on the relationship she has with the social media site. “I don’t look at Twitter anymore. I have a really great person [who tweets for me]. I tweet, but I do it through someone else,” Dunham said. “I don’t even know my Twitter password. Which may make me seem like I’m no longer a community user, and that would be true.”

Lena DunhamLena Dunham has revealed she no longer uses Twitter

“I didn’t want to cut off my relationship to it completely, but it really truly wasn’t a safe space for me,” she continued. “I think even if you think you can separate yourself from the kind of verbal violence that’s being directed at you, that it creates some really kind of cancerous stuff inside you.”

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Over the last month, she attracted a backlash from Justin Bieber’s fanbase after she criticised the lyrics to the pop star’s current single ‘What Do You Mean?’. There were also a number of negative comments following an Instagram pic of her in a sports bra and her boyfriend’s boxers.

“It wasn’t a graphic picture,” she said about that latter incident. “I was wearing men’s boxers, and it turned into the most rabid, disgusting debate about women’s bodies.”

Back on the subject of Twitter, she continued: “Even if you think, ‘Oh, I can read like 10 mentions that say I should be stoned to death,’ and kind of laugh and move on. That’s verbal abuse. Those aren’t words you’d accept in an interpersonal relationship. And those aren’t words that should be directed to you, ever. For me, personally, it was safer to stop.”

Following these comments, two more updates appeared on Dunham’s account on Wednesday (September 30th). “Not that it’s anything to be so proud of, but I do still compose my own tweets,” Dunham wrote. “I still appreciate your time and love, even if I’m not checking my replies. Isn’t this fascinating? How’s your day? Cool!”

Dunham and ‘Girls’ executive producer Jenni Konner launched their weekly ‘Goop’-style newsletter Lenny earlier this week, aimed at young women and covering everything from lifestyle and fashion to feminism and politics.

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