Twitter Trolls Shawn Mendes By Starting 'Shawn Leaked Nudes' HashTag

Pop star Shawn Mendes was the latest target of Twitterati’s wrath Saturday as a fake hashtag “ShawnsLeakedNudes” started trending around 1 a.m. EDT, intending to tarnish the singer's reputation.

Even though the hashtag itself implies that naked pictures of Mendes were leaked online, reading a few tweets and memes under the trend made it aptly clear that there was no basis for the creation of the particular hashtag except for trolling the singer.

Read: Justin Bieber Shades Shawn Mendes After Being Compared To The Singer

It is not immediately known as to who started the hashtag, however, it quickly went viral on Twitter with several people making up memes and others retweeting the same.

Despite most users either waiting to see how Mendes would choose to react to the fake hashtag, there were those who stood up for the artist pointing out that such senseless bullying of the pop star was uncalled for.

“#ShawnsLeakedNudes this tag is f----- up, no need to try & get it trending to scare Shawn. who the f--- finds this funny. let the boy live,” wrote an angry supporter of the singer on Twitter. “Y'all need to learn a thing called RESPECT #ShawnsLeakedNudes,” wrote another.

#ShawnsLeakedNudes started trending hours after Billboard contemplated that the young pop star’s “There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back” might soon beat “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee, featuring Justin Bieber and take its place at the top of the Pop Songs airplay chart.

Read: How To Get Shawn Mendes Illuminate World Tour Tickets; Singer Announces Dates On Snapchat

“Despacito” has been No. 1 on pop songs for the past four weeks but it has begun to slip as Mendes’ song from the album “Illuminate” is steadily gaining in popularity. If “There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back” makes it to the top, it would be the second time that a song by Mendes occupied the top spot; the first time was when Mendes released the single “stitches,” in 2015.

This, not the first time that Mendes has been a target of haters. Back in June 2016, many YouTube users questioned his sexual orientation, calling him a homosexual in comments under videos of his interviews.

In a series of Snapchat videos, following the incident, Mendes declared he was not gay as people might have assumed.

"So I don't usually do this and bring up problems, but I was on YouTube just watching some of my interviews, and I was going down the comments and noticed a lot of people were saying that I gave them a 'gay vibe.' First of all, I'm not gay," Mendes said, E! Online reported. "Second of all, it shouldn't make a difference if I was or if I wasn't. The focus should be on the music and not my sexuality."

"Now I know 99 percent of you guys aren't making assumptions like this, but this is just for the one percent of you that are," he added. "I just want you guys—before you judge someone on the way they speak or act—I want you guys to think, 'Hey, maybe I shouldn't be judging someone' or 'Wait, it actually doesn't even matter. They can do or be or feel however they want to feel.'"