NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi said Monday evening that he was contemplating giving up on his social media accounts on Sunday, March 8, setting off speculation over what may have provoked him to do so. Modi is among the most followed political leaders on Twitter and Facebook.“This Sunday, thinking of giving up my social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Will keep you all posted,” Modi said in a tweet. The PM posted the same message on Facebook and Instagram.Government officials remained tightlipped on the reasons and said the PM would reveal more in a day or two. It was also not clear whether Modi, who has used social media to communicate directly with the masses, would be giving up the platforms for a long time or only for a day on Sunday — which also happens to be the International Women’s Day.‘It will be Something Positive’“It will be something positive,” one official told ET. 74450049 Modi has nearly 44 million followers on Facebook, over 53 million on Twitter, 35 million on Instagram and 4.5 million on YouTube. On Facebook, former US President Barack Obama is the only politician with more followers (53 million) than Modi, while the incumbent President Donald Trump trails Modi at nearly 28 million followers. On Twitter, Obama and Trump are ahead of Modi with 113 million and 73 million followers, respectively. Modi had joined Twitter in 2009.PM Modi, however, is the most followed political leader on Instagram, a platform he joined in 2014. Obama and Trump trail him here with nearly 27 million and 18 million followers, respectively.Trump had caused a flutter ahead of his trip to India last month, when he said he was No 1on Facebook, ahead of PM Modi. This is incorrect, since Modi has more followers on this platform than Trump.“As a global ambassador of India, Modi is the most engaged political leader in the world on Facebook, with his page sparking more conversation than those of Obama or Trump. Modi was the first leader outside the US to understand the potential of social media and leverage it. He had a big first-mover advantage and his reach dwarfed others by a mile,” a senior government official told ET.During last year’s general election campaign, Modi’s tweets and Facebook posts garnered nearly 2 trillion impressions over 74 days, said officials. On the matrix of engagements — the number of times a user interacts with a post — Modi’s tweets and Facebook posts had 28 million engagements during the same period.Modi’s tweet celebrating BJP’s big election victory in 2019 was the most retweeted and liked tweet of the year in India.“Modi has always believed in directly communicating with the people. All the major campaigns of the government or the party — be it Swachh Bharat, Ujjwala or ‘Main Bhi Chowkidaar’ campaign during the last elections — were amplified through his social media accounts. Hence, today’s statement comes as a big surprise,” a second official told ET, requesting anonymity.
from Economic Times https://ift.tt/32Mx6JU
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