In 2015, Corinne Duyvis created the now-popular #ownvoices tag on Twitter as a way to highlight books where the author shared a marginalized identity with the protagonist. For example, if a lesbian author wrote a story with a lesbian protagonist, that would be considered “own voices” for “lesbian representation.”

This term and hashtag started as an innocent way to highlight books that weren’t getting enough attention and support. But its usage has spiraled out of control into something rather toxic in the publishing industry.

Here’s where #ownvoices went wrong.