Jennifer Lopez has said she did not realise the “sensitivity” surrounding the social media hashtag All Lives Matter after she was criticised for tweeting the phrase to promote her Orlando benefit song.

The US music star posted a picture on Twitter with the controversial message after performing her tribute to the victims and survivors of the mass shooting in Florida which claimed 49 lives.

She deleted the tweet following a backlash from social media users, who argued the hashtag AllLivesMatter has been used as a counter-argument to BlackLivesMatter, the phrase inspired by the fatal shootings of black people by police in the US.

Jennifer Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda Perform on NBC's Today ShowJennifer Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda perform their Orlando benefit song on NBC’s Today show (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

Jennifer, 46, said her tweet was intended to voice support for victims of “all the senseless acts of violence” in the US and abroad in recent weeks.

She told the Press Association: “We originally did a song for Orlando. I was only trying to be inclusive. It was about this, and I didn’t want to not say it was about this, but I also wanted to include everything that was going on.

“I didn’t realise there was such sensitivity to it in that moment which is why I decided to take it down.

“But my message has always been about love and my message is about including all the senseless acts of violence and that love is the answer for all of it.

“I think people understand that at the end of the day that those were my intentions.”

Speaking at a screening of her new film Ice Age: Collision Course, in Los Angeles, Jennifer said her song, Love Make The World Go Round, with stage star Lin-Manuel Miranda was a message of “love and unity”.

“I think the song has taken on a whole new meaning with all of the different senseless acts of violence that have happened all over the world,” she said.

“It’s just a message of love and unity and to not lose sight in all of these trying and devastating times and of all of these awful things happening, here in the US and everywhere.

“Love is really the answer. Love is the thing that’s going to heal us and bring us together and redirecting people’s thinking to that, instead of getting so angry and creating more hate. Looking at that person and going, ‘You did this’.

“We need to find a different way. Love is the only thing that is going to bring us to that solution.”