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Trump supporters think they tricked Twitter “censors” with #HillaryforPrision

Donald Trump supporters who believe Twitter, Google and Facebook are suppressing pro-Trump news have have taken matters into their own hands by using a hashtag with a deliberate misspelling — #HillaryForPrision — in hopes of tricking algorithms that might otherwise be censoring the #HillaryforPrison meme.

Trump declared Friday’s announcement that the FBI was going to investigate newly-found emails connected to the private email server Hillary Clinton used as Secretary of State, “bigger than Watergate,” and thus deserving of Watergate-level coverage.

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The fact that it wasn’t trending in social the way Trump supporters would like amounted to censorship, a familiar charge to Facebook, whose human editors admitted to censoring conservative news earlier this year.

Sure enough, by Sunday evening #HillaryforPrision was trending.

The first time the hashtag was used was in Aug. 12, 2015, although it’s not clear whether the author of the Tweet used it for the same purpose.

Twitter declined to comment for this story, but pointed to a tweet of Trump’s from last month:

According to Twitter’s FAQ, trends are “determined by an algorithm and, by default, are tailored for you based on who you follow and your location.”