Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter is in full swing, and now that she’s an internet content producer, Dunham has decided she’s stopped engaging with the parts of the Internet she finds toxic.On the latest episode of technology podcast Re/Code Decode , Dunham told host Kara Swisher she stopped using Twitter because she finds the social network “cancerous.”
“I really appreciate that anybody follows me at all,” said Dunham, “and so I didn’t want to cut off my relationship to it completely, but it really, truly wasn’t a safe space for me.”
Dunham still has a Twitter account, but it’s handled by a third party. This isn’t exactly new information.
Dunham also said she’s stopped reading Gawker Media sites, such as Jezebel, comparing the experience to an abusive relationship.
“I used to read Gawker and Jezebel in college and be like, ‘I can’t wait to get to New York where my people will be to welcome me,’” Dunham said. “And it’s like, it’s literally if I read it it’s like going back to a husband who beat me in the face — it just doesn’t make any sense.”
Jezebel has been extremely critical of Dunham in recent years. (Of course, they aren’t the only ones.) The site also published unflattering pre-Photoshop versions of photos taken for Dunham’s February, 2014, Vogue cover story, which were acquired by offering a $10,000 bounty.