WHEN I started using Twitter about two years ago I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Now 13,000 tweets later, I can honestly say it’s a platform that I love, along with many other women my age.

Instead of the invisibility that normally accompanies women in middle age there is somewhere you can be relevant and have your voice heard.

Many women say they like social media. It can be liberating to find others who want to be irreverent, questioning and open to new ideas.

I’ve met several new real-life friends through Twitter and I can say that from that perspective alone, social media has enriched my life.

But of course that isn’t the whole story. I’ve been subjected, as the vast majority of women on social media have, to the inevitable vicious sexism.

Once when criticising a footballer for a sexist faux pas on Question Time the whole world seemed to have a view about how ugly, irrelevant and undesirable I was.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen other women told to “shut up” or labelled c***s — the word of choice for Twitter trolls trying to put women in their place.

Even in the past few days I’ve seen the “no-one would want to rape you” comment aimed at fellow feminists by men who want to make their violent attention seem to be something women crave. I didn’t even comment. I walked on by, so to speak, because I tweet a lot about feminism and it just felt like it might be one battle too many.

However it’s important that we do begin to offer support to our sisters and others facing vicious put-downs by those who would want to silence diverse voices, even where we might not be in 100 per cent agreement with everything being said.

The Reclaim the Internet campaign, launched on May 26, is a big step forward in this regard. It’s demanding some accountability and looks to the vision of the internet’s founder, Tim Berners-Lee, who said: “This is for everyone.” Indeed.

And we must ensure that is what it remains. We can’t carry on averting our gaze when someone is subject to harassment.

The internet mustn’t become a simple tool to broadcast the voices of the most powerful. Every time a young woman is forced to close down an account because of rape threats, that is a blow to free speech. Every time an older woman is called an “ugly bint” that cheapens our public discourse.

Reclaim the Internet has a strong case to make regarding the social media platforms themselves taking more responsibility, demanding hateful tweets are investigated, threats of rape or sexual assault are considered criminal and that in general there should be a framework for responsible dialogue.

But their stronger point is that we have to be more proactive ourselves to ensure courteous differences are pursued and we avoid the routine escalation that often accompanies social media spats.

This escalation can make the internet a very uncomfortable place for people who just want to venture forth with a little view, a question, a half-thought. Often those people are women, who, unlike many men, don’t pretend to necessarily know everything.

Unfortunately for many on the left this is uncomfortable ground. Some on the left like nothing more than seeking out heresies, finding them, calling them out, exposing the heretics for what they really are — flawed, useless specimens.

I believe this, as much as vicious overt sexism, silences women, not just the easy decline into hateful language that accompanies too much social media dialogue.

But if we want the internet to be our tool, then we have to learn tolerance, certainly even more so than the left’s previous generations.

Instead of a left that magnifies differences, we need one that can tolerate dialogue more than at any point in recent history.

The alternative is a generation of young people believing that our politics involve nothing more than bland “following” self-appointed leaders who refuse basic discourse and have a great talent for put-downs.

To those critics who might say that I’m afraid of the cut and thrust of online debates that can get quite adversarial, especially where only 140 characters are allowed to explain a position, I would reply that we have a special responsibility to acknowledge difference and debate with civility because a diverse social media voice will naturally be our ally.

The prize is that the left could become the true guardian of free speech, respecting difference, but being the defender of ideas.

If we want to reclaim the internet as our platform we have to lead the way. It’s not just the viciousness of online sexism that silences us, it’s the faux outrage, the name-calling, the censoriousness — and Reclaim the Internet gives us an opportunity to demand a new social media etiquette from us all.

• Ruth Serwotka works for a trade union and is a member of Unite.

8 For more information about Reclaim the Internet visit www.reclaimtheinternet.com.