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Monica Lewinsky has joined Twitter.
In her profile, Lewinsky, 41, describes herself as “social activist. public speaker. contributor to vanity fair. knitter of things without sleeves.”
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Lewinsky, who already has more than 18,000 followers (and growing) at press time on her verified account, sent out her first two tweets Monday morning.
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— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) October 20, 2014
excited (and nervous) to speak to #Under30Summit
— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) October 20, 2014
The latter tweet was referring to her speech Monday morning at Forbes‘ Under 30 Summit, which marked her first public talk since 2001. She spoke about cyberbullying and a plan to launch a “cultural revolution against online harassment.
“I was Patient Zero. The first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet,” said Lewinsky, who is best known as the former White House intern who embarked on an affair with then-President Bill Clinton in 1998 that eventually led to his impeachment on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice (he was acquitted of all charges following a trial in the Senate).
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She added, as quoted by Forbes: “There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then. But there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails which could be forwarded. Of course, it was all done on the excruciatingly slow dial-up. Yet around the world this story went. A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly ‘social media.’ ”
Lewinsky also made headlines recently with an essay she penned for Vanity Fair‘s June issue in which she expressed her “regret” about the entire thing, said she’s had a hard time finding a job and called out Beyonce and Hillary Clinton.
“I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton,” she writes. “Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.”
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She added: “Sure, my boss took advantage of me, but I will always remain firm on this point: It was a consensual relationship. Any ‘abuse’ came in the aftermath, when I was made a scapegoat in order to protect his powerful position.… The Clinton administration, the special prosecutor’s minions, the political operatives on both sides of the aisle, and the media were able to brand me. And that brand stuck, in part because it was imbued with power.”
She also wrote that she finds it “troubling” that Hillary Clinton blamed her for the affair and called out Beyonce for the lyrics in her single “Partition”: “He popped all my buttons, and he ripped my blouse?/He Monica Lewinsky-ed all on my gown.” Wrote Lewinsky: “Thanks, Beyonce, but if we’re verbing, I think you meant ‘Bill Clinton’d all on my gown,’ not ‘Monica Lewinsky’d.’ “
Since the scandal broke, Lewinsky has had a variety of careers, including designing a line of handbags and hosting Fox’s reality show Mr. Personality. She also earned a master’s degree in social psychology from the London School of Economics.
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