Lili Reinhart Slammed Twitter "Bullies" After Cole Sprouse Was Canceled For "No Reason"

Lili Reinhart has quite a lot to say about "cancel culture" — especially when it affects the people closest to her. In a series of since-deleted tweets posted on Friday, May 1, Lili Reinhart defended boyfriend Cole Sprouse from Twitter bullies and slammed the social media network for fostering "vile" and "abusive" behavior against other users. The Riverdale star was inspired to share her thoughts after the hashtag "#ColeSprouseIsOverParty" began trending on Twitter, despite the fact that Sprouse apparently did nothing to deserve being "canceled" by social media.

"Twitter is such a vile place. It’s so easy to say sh*t behind your f*cking phone, isn’t it?" Reinhart began her posts, before explaining that plenty of public figures "choose to keep their relationships private" — likely a reference to her own romance with Sprouse — and many people "don't have social media" because of the kind of "bullying" that thrives on Twitter. "I don’t tolerate any of that sh*t," Reinhart continued. "Bully me? Sure fine. But attacking someone for literally no reason, just for the sake of a f*cking twitter trend?"

"Please.... reassess yourself and your ego." The actor also encouraged social media users to think about the fact that there are real people who are affected by their tweets. "It’s easy to criticize someone and spew hate because it makes you feel like you have some sort of power over them," Reinhart wrote.

However, instead of sending mean tweets or joining in on a cancellation "party" on social media, Reinhart encouraged people to direct their energy in a more positive direction. "You want to feel validated or important? Attacking someone online won’t give that to you," she wrote. "Do something helpful with your time and be better."

The actor also seemed to acknowledge that while many people would encourage her to ignore the negativity directed at her or her loved ones, she felt a responsibility to speak out about it. "I refuse to keep my mouth shut about things like this," Reinhart wrote. "You have no idea how destructive this can be to someone. To anyone. It’s abusive. There is no excuse for this. You need god in your life or some form of help if you participate in cancel culture."

While she has kept her romance with Sprouse relatively quiet, Reinhart has always been outspoken about her relationship with social media. “It’s very much a constant balance of what do I share? What do I not share?" she told Teen Vogue in October 2018, explaining that she wants to be open with her fans. "I want to be authentic, but I also don’t want to give everyone parts of myself that they don’t need to know about. I’m mostly just trying to show the goofy and happy side of myself. Even if I’m feeling sad, I try to keep everything positive."

Two months later, she announced she was going on a "Twitter break" after the constant "negativity" on the platform took a toll on her mental health. "Do people on Twitter ever get tired of being so negative and disrespectful to literally everyone and everything?" she wrote on her Instagram Story at the time. "There's hate everywhere. But especially Twitter. It's like a cesspool." Considering what Reinhart has had to deal with on Twitter over the years, it's no wonder she feels so passionately about speaking out against online bullying — especially when it affects the people she loves most.