'Hang Mike Pence' trends on Twitter after platform suspends Trump for risk of 'incitement of violence'
US Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a "Make America Great Again!" campaign event at Oakland County International Airport in Waterford, Michigan, on October 22, 2020. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Twitter saw a surprising item trending on Friday night when "Hang Mike Pence" hit around 14,000 tweets, according to reports.
The social media platform announced Friday night that it was permanently suspending President Donald Trump’s Twitter account.
The decision was made "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," according to a statement on the company’s blog.
Many users were confused, then, to see such a violent item in the trending section.
Twitter appeared to notice the trend at some point: on the Twitter Trending USA site, which tracks the past 12 hours of the top 10 trending, the item does not appear.
"We blocked the phrase and other variations of it from trending," a Twitter spokesperson told Fox News on Saturday. "We want trends to promote healthy discussions on Twitter."
"This means that at times, we may prevent certain content from trending. As per our Help Center, there are Rules for trends -- if we identify accounts that violate these rules, we’ll take enforcement action."
Some users were quick to point out that the trending item was not due to fresh threats, but rather that users were circulating a video from the Wednesday riot at the U.S. Capitol.
In the video, protesters could be heard chanting the phrase repeatedly.
No matter the reason, some users believed that allowing the item to trend at all was hypocritical after Twitter explicitly cited "violence" as the reason Trump was suspended.
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