So our favourite advertisement platform and social commentator Amul made some cartoons about China. Twitter didn’t like it and the tweeple did not like that Twitter did not like it. So they told everyone that none of us should like Twitter. Sound convoluted? Don’t let it worry you, it was just another day on Twitter; another hashtag tempest in a teacup with #BoycottTwitter .
She is always topical and this time ad spoke out in favour of the boycott of Chinese items; which in turn was a reaction against recent Chinese incursions into Indian territory.
Amul was positioning itself as Indian-made and as a bulwark as against foreign imports.
The milk, butter, cheese, cream, chocolate, desserts --- every Indian loves these.
Twitter was of the view that Amul ads were not in accordance with the platform's community guidelines and briefly suspended Amul.
Many of the Indian tweeple were highly upset with what they saw as Twitter siding with China.
…Saw a pattern
People decided to use Twitter – to ask for a boycott of Twitter.
Some thought it was rather bizarre to be asking for a boycott of a service – using that very service as a platform to ask for the boycott.
The tweeple are tweeting with the #BoycottTwitter hashtag. Surely real resistance would mean actual boycott; when one stops tweeting altogether and deletes their account?
The result of the hashtag was that more people were using Twitter; not fewer. Surely this was the opposite of the desired effect of the hashtag?
It’s a little bit like that old SRK song, the rough translation of which goes: steal me from myself.
…Which loosely translates to – to betray the one who is helping you.
The hashtag ended up promoting Twitter; having the opposite of the desired impact, said some of the tweeple.
What’s the point!
Not inaccurate.
Thanos and his 'wisdom' have become representative of much of popular culture recently.
There is a lot of evidence to show that Twitter hashtags are artificially created and trended using an army of paid and unpaid social media accounts as well as bots. These could be politically motivated or agenda-driven or simply a marketing ploy. Whatever the hashtag; it is Twitter that benefits.
When it was decided to trend #BoycottTwitter, this was probably done only to amplify a particular idea/ideology; not with any real intention of boycotting Twitter. Because to do so would be to literally saw off the branch that one sits on – and then where would Twitter trolls go!
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