Twitter apologized on Friday after “kill all Jews” was highlighted as a topic on its trending section.
“This phrase should not have appeared in trends, and we’re sorry for this mistake,” a Twitter representative said in a statement to TheWrap. “At times, we do prevent certain content from trending and we have now done so with this trend. This was trending as a result of coverage and horrified reactions to the vandalism against a synagogue in New York. Regardless, it should not have appeared as a trend.
A Brooklyn synagogue had been vandalized with the anti-Semitic slur on Thursday night — leading to an event hosted by “Broad City” star Ilana Glazer being canceled.
The slur slipped past Twitter, which usually patrols its trending section for racist topics. The company says it wants to “promote healthy discussions on Twitter with its trending topics, meaning it will “prevent certain content from trending” at times. That includes topics that “incite hate on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.”
The vandalization of the Brooklyn synagogue comes less than a week after 11 people were murdered, along with several others that were injured, during a shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The Anti-Defamation League called it the “deadliest attack” on American Jews in the nation’s history.