Lily Allen has spoken about her Twitter presence and the importance of highlighting injustice on the social media platform, revealing that “a lot of the stuff that I get in my timeline [is] horrible and threatening stuff”.
Allen made the remarks during a new interview with Beats 1’s Julie Adenuga, with the former appearing on the station as the special ‘UK Represent’ guest for this week.
Asked about her active presence on social media, Allen disclosed that she does pay attention to what people say on her feed.
“A lot of the time I’m saying things that really aren’t that bad [and] that get twisted to mean something really different, so no one can really take that away from me,” she said. “A lot of the stuff that I get in my timeline [is] horrible and threatening stuff. These people are saying a lot of horrible things about me, my kids, my role as a mother, my work – is everyone alright with that?
“Are we all cool with this? As human beings? Is this a cool environment for us to be hanging out in?”
Allen also spoke about the importance of taking on injustice on social media, reasoning that she believes “people really like to ignore what’s happening and ignore the struggle of other people”.
“If they can’t see it: it’s not happening, it’s fine,” she said. “The goal for a lot of those trolls, bots and right-wing media arms is to shut the voices of descent down. The way of doing that most effectively is to bully them and I can see that.
“I’ve seen it because I’ve experienced it in the mainstream media anyway, but I also see it being replicated now on my timeline and in my mentions, and I don’t think cowering off into the corner is going to do anything.
“There aren’t that many people that are willing to do it and for some reason I find myself here.”
Allen recently announced a major UK festival gig, with the artist – who will release her new album ‘No Shame’ in the summer – due to perform at the London-held event The Mighty Hoopla.