Twitter pushes back against #StopIslam hate after Brussels attack

For a while after the Brussels terrorist attack on Tuesday, it looked as if Twitter was awash in Muslim hatred.

The hashtag #StopIslam trended worldwide as people spilled their anger and thoughts equating Islam with terrorism all over social media.

But it didn’t take long for the rest of Twitter to yell, “Stop it!”

Some #StopIslam users amplified what two presidential candidates said after the attacks.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said that “we’re having problems with the Muslims” and warned about people from the Middle East coming into the United States.

“These attacks are not done by Swedish people,” he said. “That I can tell you. We have to be smart. We have to look at the mosques and study what’s going on. There is a sick problem going on.”

His opponent, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, issued a statement saying the United States needs “to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”

Twitter, though, pushed back hard on them vs. us thinking. It did the same after the ISIS-led attacks on Paris in November.

CNN reported that researchers from the University of Washington and Qatar Computing Research Institute studied the sentiments of 8 million tweets regarding the attacks.

The vast majority defended Muslims and absolved them from responsibility for what happened in Paris.

#JeSuisMuslim?

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Twitter pushes back against #StopIslam hate after Brussels attack."