The tweets about Donald Trump’s death have been very exaggerated.
You may have woken up to the #TrumpIsDead trend Twitter this morning and I switched to my favorite news app to find out more.
Of course, there wouldn’t have been such a story there. The former president of the United States is alive and well: to coin one of his favorite phrases, this hashtag was a cold case of fake news.
But in a coordinated attempt to test Elon MuskThe misinformation stance on the platform after its acquisition, trending topics in the US and beyond have been peppered with news of Mr. TrumpThe apparent disappearance.
Why did it happen?
As always, when something is fashionable on Twitter, especially if it ends up being false or misleading, much of the discussion was led by people wondering what the hell was going on on Earth.
But it started as an effort to essentially attach it to new owner Musk, who made content moderation – and his apparent desire to loosen it – a key part of the conversation surrounding its acquisition.
“#TrumpIsDead is the best retaliation to Musk by saying that disinformation is free speech,” said one.
Another who tweeted the hashtag added, “I mean, he might be alive, but since we’re apparently going in a new direction for fact-checking in Chief Twit’s new world, I guess we’ll never know.”
“There has never been a hashtag that has a bigger trend,” said one, echoing Trump’s style of self-praise.
At its peak, tens of thousands of tweets have taken the hashtag to the top of trending charts.
Verified accounts got into the joke, with one from comedian Tim Heidecker racking up nearly 10,000 retweets, while others simulated screenshots from news sites including CNN.
In the US, #TrumpIsDead even surpassed the evening’s World Series baseball action.
Read more:
Celebrities left Twitter after Musk’s takeover
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Will Trump’s Twitter ban be lifted?
How are trends determined?
Trending topics on Twitter come from a combination of the number of tweets and the work of an algorithm, designed to tailor the ones that appear for individual users based on their interests and location.
However, Twitter will take action to prevent a hashtag or content from trending if it violates its rules.
For now, at least, this includes anything considered platform manipulation or spam, and even any form of so-called “social coordination” that can spread misinformation.
Twitter head of security and integrity Yoel Roth tweeted last night, just as the hashtag was trending: “We are vigilant against attempts to manipulate conversations on US midterms of 2022.”
Sky News reached out to Twitter for a comment on the Trump hashtag.
Read more:
Musk tweeks – then clears – connects to the conspiracy theory of Pelosi’s attack
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How do mid-term elections work?
Did Trump or Musk respond?
Trump has yet to face his return to trending charts on his Truth Social platform, where he has been posting since being banned from Twitter in January 2021.
Musk also received no comments, but his latest tweets refer to Trump’s Twitter status.
Having indicated earlier this year that would lift Trump’s banpeople were waiting to see when suspended accounts could be re-enabled.
But he tweeted overnight: “Twitter will not allow anyone who has been removed from the platform for violating Twitter’s rules on the platform until we have a clear process to do so, which will take at least a few more weeks.”
That means no return for Trump before next week’s US midterm as Musk works to create a new moderation council with “widely different points of view”.
