diff --git a/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cpp b/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cpp
index 4abf9eff4a2..7e70ab4329e 100644
--- a/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cpp
+++ b/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cpp
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ void SilenceLayer<Dtype>::Backward_cpu(const vector<Blob<Dtype>*>& top,
   for (int i = 0; i < bottom.size(); ++i) {
     if (propagate_down[i]) {
       caffe_set(bottom[i]->count(), Dtype(0),
-                bottom[i]->mutable_cpu_data());
+                bottom[i]->mutable_cpu_diff());
     }
   }
 }
diff --git a/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cu b/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cu
index 8d044ee7307..34faef22bda 100644
--- a/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cu
+++ b/src/caffe/layers/silence_layer.cu
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ void SilenceLayer<Dtype>::Backward_gpu(const vector<Blob<Dtype>*>& top,
   for (int i = 0; i < bottom.size(); ++i) {
     if (propagate_down[i]) {
       caffe_gpu_set(bottom[i]->count(), Dtype(0),
-                    bottom[i]->mutable_gpu_data());
+                    bottom[i]->mutable_gpu_diff());
     }
   }
 }