Twitter Allows ‘Rape Melania’ to Trend After Site Explodes with Trump Assassination Threats
Social media giant Twitter allowed the violent threat “Rape Melania” against incoming First Lady Melania Trump to trend after the site exploded with assassination threats against President-elect Donald Trump.
“Rape Melania” is trending. Liberals are really outdoing their own disgusting behavior. #SundayMorning #Trump pic.twitter.com/PA1q6QV4sa
— WE DID IT (@BobbyDellBSC) November 13, 2016
Outside the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., a protester held up a sign saying “RAPE MELANIA,” which went viral.
DC Protestor “Rape Melania” pic.twitter.com/US2OLTyBDF
— Beck (@thereal_beck) November 13, 2016
The trend later disappeared Sunday afternoon after many tweeted their outrage.
.@jack, why are you allowing #RapeMelania to trend?
— Ezra Levant (@ezralevant) November 13, 2016
I just saw that Rape Melania is trending
This week, many tweets talked about killing Trump
More reminders that Love Trumps Hate is a lie
— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) November 13, 2016
“RapeMelania” – free speech!
“Assassinate Trump” – free speech!
“Run them over” – inciting violence leading to @Instapundit suspension— Razor (@hale_razor) November 13, 2016
After Trump won the presidential election on Tuesday, threats against his life spread on social media, as the Daily Mail reported:
“So who’s going to assassinate Trump at his inauguration?” one Twitter user demanded to know.
“I just pray that the first n***a who tries to assassinate Donald Trump don’t miss,” another added.
One joked: “My mom is talking about assassinate donald trump. watch out guy my white suburban mother is coming for you.”
While some also called for the death of vice president-elect Mike Pence.
“If trump wins pls dont assassinate him without getting mike pence first because his a** is f***ing crazy,” one user tweeted…
A source close to the Secret Service, told the DailyMail.com that the agency were well aware of the threats and that they had seen a spike since Trump was elected on Tuesday.
They said there were ‘mechanisms in place’ to monitor social media for such posts, and to determine which threats were more concerning than others but said that “every threat was taken seriously.”
Twitter routinely removed pro-Trump trending topics and manipulated hashtags that hurt failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the election. Furious users accused the site of censoring the explosive DNC Wikileaks story in July after #DNCLeaks, with over a quarter million tweets, vanished from the Trending section, replaced by the far less popular #DNCLeak.