We studied the events of Feb 2-4 to understand the online engagement around the tweets of @Rihanna and other women who came out in support of the Indian #FarmerProtests and the subsequent #IndiaTogether campaign in opposition.

http://joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu/rihannavsbollywood/

Thread of key findings:

More followed an Indian celeb, less likely they were to engage on behalf of #FarmerProtests.

@Rihanna's tweet had more than 3x impact of the 2d most engaged, @Sachin_RT

@MiaKhalifa had more engagement than all other Indian male celebrities tweeting in favour of #IndiaTogether

Some groups of public figures, such as entertainers from Punjab, or those with Punjabi heritage living in US/Canada/UK were strongly represented among the celebs coming out in favour.

Politicians from Punjabi-heavy constituencies in Ontario, Manchester, Calif as well in there.

While the momentum on Feb 2 was mainly supportive of @Rihanna, including by significant support from journalists, the momentum on Feb 3 was more driven by the celebrities and politicians speaking in favour of the government

All those who tweeted in favour or against gained followers. The highest gain in followers was for @MEAIndia, followed by @MiaKhalifa.

@TeamKangana which engaged very highly on the issue, and reversed previous drop in following.

In general, journalists tweeted in support of @Rihanna.

@Profdilipmandal had the highest overall engagement on the issue.

@VikramChandra is the only major figure who LOST followers, confirming that like most studies, there is at least one mostly inexplicable data point.

We find evidence of trolling of @Rihanna in response to the tweet. The most common form of trolling was gendered, followed by on her race/ethnicity, followed by on her nationality

Looking the trending hashtags, we find that climate activist @GretaThunberg was singled out for attack more than all the other key figures who tweeted about the #FarmerProtests

There is strong suggestion of collusive tweeting from key Indian celebrities using #IndiaTogether based on the timing of their tweets on Feb 3, which came in three batches in the morning (actors), afternoon (cricketers), and evening (mixed)

In general, sportspersons more likely to lean towards the government position. Cricketers almost uniformly on the government side or neutral.

Two major sportspersons who came out against were @Guttajwala and @IrfanPathan

We find that misinformation related to the farmer protests existed prior to the events of this week, these were amplified. The key threads of fake news are around Khalistanis, Modi connections to industrialists and are driven by both sides on the issue.

Few events on social media have seen the kind of engagement by public figures as this.

This is work by @DibyenduMishra @SyedaZainabA @AryaArshia @DashSaloni @GroverRynaa

All data is made public in the full paper.

http://joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu/rihannavsbollywood/