Actress Rose McGowan is suspended from Twitter

Rose McGowan’s Twitter account has been suspended for violating the social network’s rules, the actress has revealed in an Instagram post.

The Charmed star, who is one of the accusers of the disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, has been vocal on Twitter over the past week regarding the recent sexual assault allegations which have come to light against the producer.

In 1997, Weinstein reportedly reached a settlement with McGowan after an episode in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival.

McGowan subsequently used the social networking site to call Ben Affleck a "liar" before telling him to “f*** off” after he said he had no knowledge of Weinstein’s behaviour.

Since Affleck's statement condemning Weinstein for alleged acts of sexual harassment, he came under pressure to apologise to actress Hilarie Burton for groping her during an appearance on MTV’s Total Request Live in 2003.

McGowan also tweeted encouraging her followers to sign a petition to dissolve the board of The Weinstein Company.

During the 12-hour Twitter suspension the actress is not able to send tweets or retweets from her account, unless she deletes “tweets that violate our rules”, the notification from Twitter said.

It is not clear which tweets are considered a violation.

However, on Twitter’s support page it says that if it detects behaviour that may “inhibit other people’s ability to express themselves freely”, it “may temporarily limit certain account features”.

The suspension of McGowan’s account has already been met with incredulity and outrage on social media, with many criticising the platform for silencing a woman who is trying to speak up about sexual assault.