“Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s life was threatened by a Twitter user when she showed her support for author Salman Rushdie after he was stabbed in early August.
Rowling shared the “horrifying news” that Rushdie, who has been persona non-grata in Iran over the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in his over 30-year-old novel “The Satanic Verses,” was viciously attacked in New York as he took the stage to give a lecture.
“Feeling very sick right now,” Rowling posted on Friday. “Let him be ok.” A Twitter replier commented on the post, “Don’t worry you are next.”
Rowling posted her messages with Twitter moderators, where she questioned if there was “any chance of some support,” but Twitter decided that there “were no violations of the Twitter rules in the content” she reported in a screenshot she shared.
Rowling quoted the social platform’s policy at them in her follow-up tweet. “These are your guidelines, right?” She asked. “Violence: You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people. We also prohibit the glorification of violence… Terrorism/violent extremism: You may not threaten or promote terrorism…”
She told followers that she was grateful for their support and that the “police are involved,” and “were already involved on other threats” against her.
Rowling has been essentially canceled by “Potter” fans after her June 2020 tweets about feminism were considered transphobic by LGBTQ+ activists.
“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth,” she posted.
“The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women – ie, to male violence – ‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences – is a nonsense,” Rowling posted in a follow-up.
She was sent death threats by unhinged activists, one which hoped that someone would put a pipe bomb in her mailbox, the author snarked back, “To be fair, when you can’t get a woman sacked, arrested or dropped by her publisher, and cancelling her only made her book sales go up, there’s really only one place to go.”
Rowling’s address was posted online by transgender protestors taking photos outside her home in November 2021. She contacted Scottish authorities, who ultimately declined to pursue charges against the doxxers.
“I’ve now received so many death threats I could paper the house with them, and I haven’t stopped speaking out,” Rowling wrote. “Perhaps – and I’m just throwing this out there – the best way to prove your movement isn’t a threat to women, is to stop stalking, harassing and threatening us.”