Hashtag inciting hatred trends on Twitter, handles followed by PM, BJP leaders

On Sunday, #मुस्लिमोकासंपूर्ण_बहिष्कार (‘Total Boycott of Muslims’) was one of the top trends on Twitter. This was not the only one hashtag but there were many more trending on Twitter posting abusive and discriminatory posts against the minority community.

The messages posted with these hashtags were asking people to boycott buying goods and services from Muslims and demanding ban on the religious teachings.

Hashtags trending on Twitter promoting bigotry and hatred is not an unusual thing. On October 18, hashtags ‘#ProphetisGay’ and ‘#पैGAYम्बर’ trended; the hashtag ‘#BoycottAllah’ was trending, with over 20,000 tweets on October 20.

According to a report in The Wire, The police are reluctant to act against the individuals currently promoting this hashtag with the intent of malice against Muslims since many of them are followed by prominent politicians – including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and various cabinet ministers.

Twitter handle ‘@GovindHindu’ used the hashtag to show an inflammatory picture. This twitter account is currently followed by four members of the BJP, with the Prime Minister included.

Twitter account ‘ExSecular’ put out a tweet promoting a similar sentiment. It has used a photoshopped image of actor Bollywood actor Swara Bhasker to prove that she was calling for hanging of the people accused of Kamalesh Tiwari’s murder. The post didn’t use the hashtag

This account is also followed by PM Modi, along with Kapil Mishra and the office of commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, reported The Wire.

These two Twitter accounts are followed by a range of ministers, the Office of Piyush Goyal happens to have been following a significant number of more such handles. ‘Office of Piyush Goyal’ Twitter handle had drawn a lot of flak in the past too for following unverified accounts, most recent case was that of the instigator of the Zomato episode.

Journalist Abhijit Majumder, a verified account shared the same video in a sardonic thread about how Muslim children are being radicalized.

However, Abhijit used the hashtag #MuhammadForAll, which was trending in response to the hate-filled hashtag that had flooded Twitter the entire day.

This hashtag began an hour after the original hashtag emerged.

In a positive turn of events hashtag celebrating the religion had 42,000 tweets – over 14,000 times more than the hate-filled one vilifying it.