The internet is furious after Twitter promotes #HappyDeathDay amid London fire and Virginia shooting

Social media users are fuming after Twitter's sponsored trending section promoted #HappyDeathDay on Wednesday (15 June) as news of the deadly fire that ripped through the Grenfell Tower in London unfolded. At least 12 people have died after the massive blaze destroyed the 24-storey residential building in north Kensington, home to about 600 people.

Meanwhile, stateside, Republican Congressman Steve Scalise and several other people were injured in a shooting at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia.

The promotional hashtag on Twitter was actually for the upcoming horror slasher Happy Death Day directed by Christopher Landon which hits theatres on Friday, 13 October. The unfortunately-timed hashtag also came with a custom emoji of a bloody knife in a cake.

Although the promotion was probably booked and scheduled weeks in advance and no one could have predicted that the two horrific events would take place on the same day, social media users slammed the timing of it. Many also pointed out the sponsored hashtag among other trending topics such as #LondonFire, Grenfell Tower, #Virginiashooting and Alexandria.

The hashtag was later removed from the trending column.

"WTH???!!!!!! Twitter is promoting #HappyDeathDay as people flee from the #GrenfellTower fire. @Twitter needs to remove this. NOW", journalist Erin Kotecki Vest tweeted.

One Twitter user wrote: "#HappyDeathDay is promoting their hashtag the day #londonfire is happening... how morbid can you get?"

Many users argued that the promotional hashtag was in "bad taste" and a terrible idea.

"The hashtag was a horrible idea in the first place," one person wrote. "Every day people lose loved ones. Imagine logging in to see this."