Out of the blue, #GoBackModi, a hashtag that had hit the headlines in 2018 for trending worldwide, was trending along with a few anti-BJP hashtags on Thursday.
#GoBackModi, #RajaBabuPM, #TamizharEthiriBaJaKa (BJP is enemy of Tamils) and another hashtag on former IPS officer K Annamalai, who joined the BJP on Tuesday, were trending in India for the whole of Thursday, leaving Twitter users confused.
Apparently, Tamil Twitter decided to trend these anti-BJP hashtags to “send across a message” to Annamalai who had alleged such hashtags are trended for money by Dravidian parties through accounts from countries like Georgia and Chile. During an interview with a YouTube channel, Annamalai had said most criticisms against the BJP originating from Dravidian parties and those associated with them are paid.
“If someone makes a serious allegation, you can respond. But if they target you with a meme or something without any logic, why should we take it to our heart. We know someone sitting in Georgia or Ukraine is trending it for money. I have studied the origin of these tweets and most of them are motivated. If you pay Rs 200, someone will tweet against you. Why should you treat him as equal and respond?” he asked.
“I think most criticism especially those originating from Dravidian parties are paid and you will know that if you check the origin of the internet connection. If you give USD 10 to someone in Georgia, he will trend any hashtag. You want to trend #GoBackModi, you pay, and they will trend the hashtag,” Annamalai alleged.
#GoBackModi became a favourite hashtag for Tamil Twitter as it trended it every time the prime minister came to Tamil Nadu, triggering a strong reaction from BJP which had alleged that they were being trended from Pakistan. The hashtag first trended in 2018 when Tamils took to Twitter to register their protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Cauvery issue when he visited Chennai.
As part of the interview went viral, thousands of tweets and memes against Modi, BJP and Annamalai flooded the micro-blogging site as people asked the IPS officer to check the antecedents of those tweeting them. A Twitter user, who tweets using the handle @tamilgramsi, summed it up for those who were clueless.
“All my friends outside TN, today we Tamils are trending this hashtag just for fun. A new BJP member gave an interview and he told this hashtag was promoted by Georgian and Ukrainian people. So, to show him who did the trend we are doing a sample all-India trending,” he wrote.
Some users also reminded BJP leaders that security expert Elliot Alderson had rejected allegations of the tweet originating from Pakistan and shared a list of influencers who trended the hashtag – all of them were from Tamil Nadu. They also sought to know how the IP address can show the location as a different country when the person tweeting it is from India.