Monica Lewinsky joins Twitter, vows to fight cyberbullying, gets standing ovation

Shortly after joining Twitter, Monica Lewinsky received a standing ovation on Monday, vowing to put an end to cyberbullying.

In what was billed as her first-ever public address, the former White House intern — whose relationship with President Bill Clinton led to his impeachment — told attendees of Forbes' inaugural "Under 30" summit that she was "the first person to have their reputation completely destroyed worldwide via the Internet" as a result of the 1998 sex scandal.

“I was Patient Zero,” Lewinsky, now 41, said, according to Forbes.  “There was no Facebook, Twitter or Instagram back then. But there were gossip, news and entertainment websites replete with comment sections and emails which could be forwarded. Of course, it was all done on the excruciatingly slow dial up. Yet around the world this story went. A viral phenomenon that, you could argue, was the first moment of truly ‘social media.'”

The revelation of Lewinsky's affair with Clinton created a firestorm in American politics, and caused Lewinsky to consider suicide.

“Staring at the computer screen, I spent the day shouting: ‘Oh, my God!’ and ‘I can’t believe they put that in’ or ‘That’s so out of context,’” she said. “And those were the only thoughts that interrupted a relentless mantra in my head: ‘I want to die.’”

For nearly a decade, Lewinsky had largely avoided the topic of her affair with Clinton. Earlier this year, she  broke her virtual silence in Vanity Fair.

“It’s time to burn the beret and bury the blue dress," Lewinsky wrote in the June issue, explaining that she doesn't want people “tiptoeing around my past — and other people’s futures. I am determined to have a different ending to my story.

“I, myself, deeply regret what happened between me and President Clinton," Lewinsky wrote. "Let me say it again: I. Myself. Deeply. Regret. What. Happened.”

Lewinsky said she was inspired to speak out by Tyler Clementi, the 18-year-old Rutgers freshman who committed suicide in 2010 after he was secretly streamed via webcam kissing another man.

"Perhaps by sharing my story," Lewinsky wrote, "I might be able to help others in their darkest moments of humiliation."

“That tragedy is one of the principal reasons I am standing up here today,” Lewinsky said on Monday. “While it touched us both, my mother was unusually upset by the story and I wondered why. Eventually it dawned on me: She was back in 1998, back to a time when I was periodically suicidal, when she might very easily have lost me — when I, too, might have been humiliated to death.

“Having survived myself, what I want to do now is help other victims of the shame game survive,” Lewinsky said. “I want to put my suffering to good use and give purpose to my past.”

Before her speech, Lewinsky issued the first tweets from her verified Twitter feed.

By 1 p.m. ET, Lewinsky had already gained 18,000 followers.