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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Deepfakes are made using AI to swap the likeness of one person in an image with another.</li><li>QTCinderella was among Twitch streamers who had deepfake porn of them shared online recently.</li></ul><p>Twitch gamer Atrioc paying for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/what-is-deepfake">deepfake</a> pornography of women streamers has reignited the debate around their potential harm.</p><p>Atrioc, real name Brandon Ewing, was live streaming on January 30 when viewers saw an open tab on his browser for a deepfake website, featuring images created using artificial intelligence to make it appear like people were engaging in sexual acts, according to entertainment news website <a href="https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/twitch-streamer-atrioc-gives-tearful-apology-after-paying-for-deepfakes-of-female-streamers-2047162/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dexerto</a>.</p><p>One user screenshoted the stream and shared it on Reddit. The widely viewed post featured the address of the deepfake site, meaning that the images and names of women deepfaked were seen by many. The thread has since been locked my moderators.</p><p>One of the victims of the deepfake website visited by Ewing was fellow gamer, QTCinderella.</p><p>QTCinderella tweeted the day after the screenshot was shared: "The amount of body dysmorphia I've experienced since seeing those photos has ruined me. </p><p>"It's not as simple as 'just' being violated. It's so much more than that."</p><p>Ewing later <a href="https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss80dv" target="_blank" rel="noopener">apologized</a> for viewing the content, saying in a livestream that he clicked an advert on <a href="https://www.insider.com/most-searched-sex-positions-pornhub-2022-how-to-do-2022-12">Pornhub</a> for the deepfake website due to "morbid curiosity." </p><p>He later announced he would stop making content, and said that QTCinderella told him his actions had created a "wildfire" of deepfake pornography.</p><p>He said he wanted to "combat the damage," and was engaging with law firms in order to remove the content from the internet. </p><h2>Most deepfakes are non-consensual porn featuring women</h2><p>Since deepfakes started appearing online in 2015, they have become more convincing year on year, growing in quality and quantity, Matthew B. Kugler, a professor of law at Northwestern who researches them, told Insider.</p><p>Experts fear that deepfakes can be used to spread misinformation, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-is-educating-its-citizens-to-recognize-russian-deepfakes-2023-1?_gl=1*x8ewdm*_ga*MTYwMTE5NTY1Ny4xNjUwODk4NDc4*_ga_E21CV80ZCZ*MTY3NjAzMjczOC41NzUuMS4xNjc2MDM0ODA3LjAuMC4w">for example for political gain</a>, but evidence suggests that women in particular have been victimized.</p><p>Research by Sensity AI, a company that monitors deepfakes, found in 2018 that 90% to 95% of deepfakes were non-consensual <a style="font-weight: 400; background-color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.insider.com/guides/health/mental-health/porn-addiction">porn</a>, which can be traumatic for the victim, said Kuglar. 90% of that was non-consensual porn of women. </p><p>A 2019 report from DeepTrace, a technology research company, found that 99% of pornographic deepfakes featured female celebrities.</p><p><a href="https://regmedia.co.uk/2019/10/08/deepfake_report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In the report, </a>Danielle Citron, professor of law at Boston University, said: "Deepfake sex videos say to individuals that their bodies are not their own and can make it difficult to stay online, get or keep a job, and feel safe."</p><p>Kugler chimed that pornographic deepfakes threaten the victim's sense of self-control, self-presentation, and self-ownership. The results can be disorienting for anyone having <a href="https://www.insider.com/tiktok-curt-skelton-ai-zahra-hussain-viral-deepfake-joke-2022-9">AI</a> content created about them, even consensually. This includes users generating images on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/lensa-app-review-turn-selfies-digital-art-ai-technology-photos-2022-12">Lensa AI</a>, an app that creates avatars from a photo of a person, he said.</p><p>"With deepfakes, you could make me do anything. You could make me do things that are illegal, you can make me do things that are depraved. I might actually prefer to be featured in the real stuff," he said.</p><h2>Victims of deepfake porn can be left feeling scarred and betrayed</h2><p>Psychotherapist Lisa Sanfilippo, whose expertise includes sexual trauma, told Insider that creating false pornographic images "is a major violation."</p><p>She said that for the victim "seeing images of yourself — or images that are falsified to look like you, in acts that you might find reprehensible, scary or that would be only for your personal life can be very destabilizing — even traumatizing. There is no ability to give consent there."</p><p>"It's abuse when someone takes something from another person that has not been freely given to them," she said.</p><p>The effect on the victim depends on the person, Sanfilippo, but it can leave them feeling scared, scarred, and betrayed.</p><p>There is also a threat to safety for victims of <a href="https://www.insider.com/deepfakes-explained-the-rise-of-fake-realistic-videos-online-2019-6">deepfake</a> porn. Journalist Rana Ayyub wrote in <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/deepfake-porn_uk_5bf2c126e4b0f32bd58ba316" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HuffPost</a> that in 2018 she fell victim to deepfake porn while investigating corruption within the Indian government.</p><p>The deepfakes went viral, which led to harassment and threats. In the article she said: "From the day the video was published, I have not been the same person."</p><p>Kugler is now advocating for a change in law when it comes to non-consensual deepfakes, with deepfakes not technically being illegal in the US.</p><p>In the UK, an amendment to the Online Safety Bill will mean that creating, viewing or sending deepfake porn will be illegal and could be punishable by two years in prison. The bill is set to come into effect this year.</p><p>Back in the US, Kugler said: "Will laws be passed prohibiting any of this? I tend to think yes."</p>

A Twitch streamer was caught watching deepfake porn of women gamers. Sexual images made without consent can be traumatic and abusive, experts say — and women are the biggest victims.

<ul><li>‘<keyword id="13945161" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shadowbanning" source="Orion">Shadowbanning</keyword>’ or ‘ghost banning’ is the act when <keyword id="6354632" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media" source="Orion">social media</keyword> posts are taken down, muted or hidden from followers without informing the user or creator.</li><li>A user could continue posting, but their posts won’t be visible to the rest of the community.</li><li>While <keyword id="1020663" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="social-media-platforms" source="Orion">social media platforms</keyword> have denied that shadowbanning exists, many <keyword id="2893283" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="content-creators" source="Orion">content creators</keyword> and internet users believe otherwise.</li><li>In the last few years, many shadowbanning trackers have also cropped up on the internet.</li><li>Here’s all you need to know about shadowbanning.</li></ul>Shortly before Tesla’s CEO <keyword id="6355315" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="elon-musk" source="Orion">Elon Musk</keyword> announced his intentions to buy social media platform Twitter, he made a ‘joke’ about Microsoft’s co-founder Bill Gate gaining weight. Immediately after, he tweeted again to say, “<a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1517716718382166016?s=20&amp;t=zq4YSc9IXneApnGilXPtHg">Shadow ban council reviewing tweet,” with an image of six hooded people </a>who seem to be discussing something fishy.<br /><div type="twitter" handle="elonmusk" handlename="Elon Musk" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1521957986335297536/itVSA7l0_normal.jpg" favoritecount="645420" retweetcount="45160" status="shadow ban council reviewing tweet … https://t.co/cawjtwc7CW" createdat="1650686838000" id="1517716718382166016"></div><br />This conversation around <keyword id="13945237" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="shadowban" source="Orion">shadowban</keyword> isn’t new. It comes and goes in phases. Now, more Indian content creators are experiencing shadowbanning and it’s becoming a widespread concern among internet users.<br />                  <div type="image" title="shadowbanning.2" msid="91589972" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;How has &amp;#39;shadowbanning&amp;#39;, as a search term, seen growth in the last five years across the world&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />Recently, Indian independent journalist Rana Ayyub claimed to have been shadowbanned on social media platform Instagram for speaking up for Palestinian citizens. <br /><br /><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccda_o8ptah/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=c6659d3b-ccbe-4721-9776-8ff25a1a8f3e">Palestinian-American model Bella Hadid</a> also called out Instagram for suppressing her voice, limiting her reach and <a href="https://images.dawn.com/news/1189941/if-you-want-me-to-stop-talking-they-should-stop-killing-bella-hadid-on-instagrams-palestine-censorship">deactivating</a> the 'share' button on her 'Save Palestinian Citizens' post. She termed it a ‘breach of human rights’ and "the biggest form of bias and unjust censorship".<br /><br /><a href="https://time.com/5863350/tiktok-black-creators/">TikTok was also called out</a> by quite a few content creators for shadowbanning their posts on Black Lives Matter. <br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="What is shadowbanning and how it has evolved on the internet" text="What is shadowbanning and how it has evolved on the internet"><span data-til="noop">What is shadowbanning and how it has evolved on the internet</span></cmsannotation><br /><br />A number of content creators Business Insider India spoke to defined ‘shadowbanning’ or ‘ghost banning’ as social media posts being taken down, muted or hidden from followers without informing the user or creator. <br /><br />It is generally understood to be secret censorship of a person, community or a topic on social media. It quietly silences opinions.<br /><br />As per media reports, the word ‘shadowban’ appeared in the early 2000s. It was a moderation technique, used to keep a check on bots, trolls, shitposters or anyone else they deemed harmful.<br /><br />Shadowbanning isn’t just a social media lingo. It even <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3q744/where-did-shadow-banning-come-from-trump-republicans-shadowbanned">existed in the</a> 80s, wherein bulletin board systems (BBS), a computer server-running software used to exchange information, would limit ‘twit bit.’ Someone who would exhibit immature behavior, was flagged as a ‘twit’ and was granted limited access. After they were flagged, only the twit and the admin could see their messages on the board.<br /><br />As the internet became a primary mode of communication, content moderation and social media algorithms became much more complicated and lines started blurring. Today, people use the term shadowbanning quite often. Some content creators blame the streak of their low-performing content pieces or dip in reach on shadowbanning. <br /><br />“No matter how exciting the word shadow banning sounds, the fact is that intricately means banning the voice of somebody completely. The word banned is binary in nature, it's a zero or a one, there is no spectrum here. So that means you will literally get no one else to see your content,” clarifies Preetham Venkky, Chief Digital Officer of advertising agency DDB Mudra Group and President at digital marketing agency 22feet Tribal Worldwide.<br /><br />As per a few media <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2018/08/01/what-is-shadowbanning">reports</a>, when shadowbanned, users can continue to post messages, add new followers and comment or reply to other posts. But their messages may not appear in the feed, their <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/instagram-shadow-banning-is-real_n_5e555175c5b63b9c9ce434b0">replies may be suppressed </a>and they may not show up in searches under their usernames. <br /><br />An economist report also said that a major and <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/instagram-shadow-banning-is-real_n_5e555175c5b63b9c9ce434b0">sudden drop </a>in likes or retweets is also a form of shadowban, wherein the user is restricted to reach out to new people. Their posts are only visible to them and their followers. <br /><br />Body positivity content creator Prableen Kaur has seen a few creators and users being shadowbanned. She defines it as, “There's a certain topic that you're talking about, and maybe the platform doesn't want anyone to talk more about it, then they will decrease the amount of reach you will get on a particular post and that is shadowbanning for me. So for example, if there's something being spoken around bullying, then Instagram will shadowban that kind of user and try to not make it reach more people so that people are not influenced in the wrong way.”<br />                  <div type="image" title="Prableen Kaur" msid="91590246" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Digital creator Prableen Kaur shares what is shadowbanning&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Un-webbing shadowban: a timeline" text="Un-webbing shadowban: a timeline"><span data-til="noop">Un-webbing shadowban: a timeline</span></cmsannotation><br /><br />In 2019, Instagram had apologised for shadowbanning <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/instagram-apologizes-to-pole-dancers-after-hiding-their-posts-1.4537820">pole dancers</a> and <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/7xg5dd/instagram-apologizes-for-blocking-caribbean-carnival-content">attendees of a Caribbean carnival</a>. Posts with hashtags #PoleFitness and #StLuciaCarnival were removed from the explore tab completely but the platform said it was an error. “We apologise for the mistake,” a spokesperson said in both these cases. “It is never our intention to silence members of our community,” said the platform spokesperson.<br /><br />In India, Facebook and Instagram ‘<a href="https://thewire.in/tech/facebook-and-instagram-mistakenly-blocked-sikh-for-almost-three-months">mistakenly blocked</a>’ #Sikh for almost three months in 2020. A similar apology was released after it caught international attention. An Instagram spokesperson said its ‘processes fell down and it was never their intention to silence members of this community.’<br /><div type="twitter" handle="InstagramComms" handlename="Instagram Comms" image="http://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1305901852190482434/nVjrSoGe_normal.jpg" favoritecount="2052" retweetcount="840" status="We have unblocked the hashtag #sikh on Instagram and are working to unblock #sikh on Facebook. We're investigating… https://t.co/ugrb7PEKtf" createdat="1591206223000" id="1268236937246019589"></div><br />It did not seem like a coincidence. It was around the anniversary of <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/operation-bluestar-s-37th-anniversary-today-tight-security-in-amritsar-101622936709706.html#:~:text=events%20of%201984.-,Operation%20Bluestar%20was%20a%20military%20action%20ordered%20by%20then%20PM,and%20left%20the%20shrine%20damaged.">Operation Blue Star</a>, which was a military action ordered by former PM Indira Gandhi to flush out Sikh militants holed up in Harmandir Sahib Complex. Posts associated with #Sikh went up as the community raised its voice to mark the injustices of 1984; but were never heard.<br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Is shadowban real?" text="Is shadowban real?"><span data-til="noop">Is shadowban real?</span></cmsannotation><br /><br />It isn’t just Instagram. All <a href="https://twitter.com/jackielerm/status/1231122961379340289">platforms </a><a href="https://www.papermag.com/tiktok-lgbtq-shadow-banning-2647646779.html?rebelltitem=3#rebelltitem3">deny </a>that shadowbanning is real. However, many users believe it is. <br /><br />There are more than 98.4k hashtags #shadowbanned and 55.7k posts with #shadowban on Instagram as of May 12, 2022. There are over 30 combinations around the hashtag shadowbanned on Instagram, each with at least 100 posts. <br /><br />While it is hard to confirm shadowbanning’s existence, there’s some evidence. In the last few years, many shadowbanning trackers have cropped up on the internet. Websites like HeistSocial.com, Tribber.com, shadowban.eu, <a href="https://shadowban.yuzurisa.com/">shadowban.yuzurisa.com</a>, to mention a few, allow users to determine if they are shadowbanned on different social media platforms. <br /><br />Travel, fashion and lifestyle content creator Avantika Mohan took this test three months ago and confirmed that she was shadowbanned. “A lot of people say that shadowban is just in your head and it is just low-engagement. But when I was shadowbanned, people were unable to see my posts. I even did a poll on Instagram to find out if they could see it. They mentioned that they were unable to see my posts.”<br />                  <div type="image" title="Avantika Mohan" msid="91590098" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Avantika Mohan talks to Business Insider India about her experience of being shadowbanned&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />While Mohan said she didn’t see a pattern in this ghost ban, body positive content creator Neelakshi Singh, spotted a trend in how it works. <br /><br />“Creators who’ve called out racism or other marginalised communities like the black community or Asian community were refrained from posting about an issue -- I feel that somewhere that is buried in. Any issues or anything that doesn't fulfill the property or satisfy the mainstream, I feel that goes on to a shadowban.”<br /><br />On the other hand, digital content creator Shivani Kapila believes that it is just a perception.<br /><br />“It's very convenient for a creator like me to say that it [content] is shadowbanned rather than coming up with different content ideas and brainstorming further. It is maybe because my crowd is exhausted of seeing what I've been showing for about six months.” <br /><br />When a social media user is banned permanently from the platform, they receive an official email or a notification before, whereas, when a user is shadowbanned, they are kept in the dark. Their hashtags don’t seem to work -- posts fail to appear on the ‘explore’ tab when clicked on the hashtag. <br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Is there a way to dodge shadowban and play safe?" text="Is there a way to dodge shadowban and play safe?"><span data-til="noop">Is there a way to dodge shadowban and play safe?</span></cmsannotation><br />Instagram appears to have shadowbanned hashtags such as #hotweather, #asiangirls, #alone, #brain, #bikinibody, to mention a few. On the other hand, Business Insider India found out that #gunviolence has more than 182k posts as of May 13, 2022.<br />                  <div type="image" title="Hashtags banned" msid="91590125" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hashtags that are banned on Instagram&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div><br />A few users and content creators have found a way to dodge this hashtag ban. <br /><br />“To circumvent the issue of certain words or phrases being flagged, ‘Algospeak’ is fast becoming a commonly used practice among the netizens, where alternatives are found in rhyming words, abbreviations, pop-culture references, emojis and more such creative means. When a platform won’t allow using the hashtag sexual assault to discuss the issue, it becomes #SA. A vibrator isn’t an appropriate lingo for social media, so an eggplant emoji is used; the internet is littered with such examples,” Shivani Kamdar, associate creative director at digital agency SoCheers tells Business Insider India.<br /><br />Rashid Ahmed, head of digital at marketing agency Infectious Advertising, also shared a few words that can get you banned on Instagram. <br /><br />"Body shaming terms (like fat and ugly), negative adjectives or phrases (like sad and selfish or spewing crazy) and known to be factually incorrect statements, can be cause for a user’s post to be shadowbanned. Repeated inappropriate content identifications could lead to a user being barred from posting for a specific period. Unwittingly used tags like #Snap, #pushups, #single, #brain or even #alone, could result in suppression or being shadowbanned."<br /><br />Ahmed suggested that creators can avoid being shadowbanned by "being mindful of the type of content they create, by using appropriately ‘safe’ language, and delivering to their audiences’ interests and tastes."<br /><br /><cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Lack of transparency around updated algorithm is eroding user trust" text="Lack of transparency around updated algorithm is eroding user trust"><span data-til="noop">Lack of transparency around updated algorithm is eroding user trust</span></cmsannotation><br /><br />While we all know that Instagram bans certain hashtags time and again to moderate its content and its algorithm keeps changing, many say that its lack of transparency is the most frustrating part. <br /><br />By not informing users what is deemed appropriate by the platform and how to adjust their content as per Instagram’s liking, user trust is affected and it also comes across as discriminatory. <br /><br />Founder and CEO of influencer marketing platform Wobb, Ishan Jindal, says, “If shadow banning is a thing, then it is a drawback at the end of the social media platforms and their flawed policies that practice censorship of voices. In terms of the content creator industry, such a phenomenon would highly restrict a creator’s individualism and unconventional tendencies.”<br /><br />Telling us how it can affect a creator, he adds, “Any type of censorship of the content with the idea of suppressing voices can severely damage the trust between social media platforms and their users. Such a phenomenon also affects public figures, creators and their relationships with the audience.”<br /><br />With their algorithm, social media platforms have the power to decide what the mainstream audience sees on the explore tab. <br /><br />Telling us how algorithms work, Kamdar says, “If a topic or conversation is deemed “inappropriate” by a platform’s algorithm, no matter how significant it is for the individual or the community, the content around it won’t reach its desired audience, thus affecting the creator’s discoverability to an extent. It won’t matter how painstakingly the content is created, or how significant a role it could play, its reach will be limited.”<br /><br />In case of the shadowban on #sikh before Operation Blue Star anniversary, an entire community was stopped from talking about a painful historic event. Similarly, TikTok had restricted #BlackLivesMatter’s reach. <br /><br />While social media platforms have denied the allegations, they have also released apologies for blocking these hashtags, when there was a social movement rising simultaneously in real life. <br /><br />This could lead to lack of trust among many users and content creators. To turn this around, Neelakshi says that platforms need to be more transparent so that creators can work their way around the algorithm and hashtags that are banned. <br /><br />“As a female user, I would want to have more control in terms of what I'm able to create or what I am able to speak about.” <br /><br />It is important for the platforms now to address the ‘ghost’ in the room and bring it out of the shadows.<br /><br />              <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="91578141" title="Elon Musk called Twitter newsfeed algorithms 'manipulative,' prompting a reply from founder Jack Dorsey, who disagreed with the claim" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div><br />

Social media platforms deny but content creators and tracking websites confirm that shadowbanning or silent censorship is real

<ul><li>Tejashwi Yadav clocked over 1.24 million engagements in October overshadowing incumbent Bihar CM Nitish Kumar who managed only 133,879 engagements. </li><li>The IPL was the flavour of the season for cricketers where expectedly India captain and expectant father Virat Kohli topped Twitter engagement with 2.4 million engagements. </li></ul>Twitteet, a social media analytics firm released its October analytics report today. This is the first time social media analytics for Twitter engagement by 20 categories have been done on a daily and monthly basis. <br /><br />The categories whose Twitter engagement have been analysed include Politicians (party-wise), Journalists, Business Leaders Founders &amp; Investors), Sportspersons (cricket and other sports), Movies stars (Bollywood and regional), Authors, Chefs, and Comedians.<br /><br />Here are the winners from some key categories:<br /><br /><ol><li>Politicians – Narendra Modi - 72,15,913 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Bollywood – Sonu Sood - 24,36,601 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Business Head – Anand Mahindra - 4,08,882 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Cricketer – Virat Kohli - 24,65,918 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Sports Star (non-cricket) – Vijender Singh - 4,27,006 Twitter Engagements</li><li>TV Star – Sidharth Shukla - 3,90,901 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Journalist – Deepak Chaurasia - 18,88,720 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Founders – Kunal Shah - 60,093 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Comedians – Kunal Kamra - 11,46,111 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Regional Cinema Star – Mahesh Babu - 7,32,964 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Authors – Anand Ranganathan - 5,36,874 Twitter Engagements</li><li>Investor – Mohandas Pai - 99,741 Twitter Engagements</li></ol>Key highlights of the first report include the remarkable rise of Tejashwi Yadav who clocked over a 1.24 million engagements in October overshadowing incumbent Bihar CM Nitish Kumar who managed only 133,879 engagements. Expectedly, Prime Minster Narendra Modi topped the overall Indian Twitter engagement rankings with over 7.2 million engagements. <br /><br />Among Indian Politicians Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is at #2 with 3.5 million engagements, UP CM Yogi Adityanath and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were 3rd and 4th in the Indian Politicians engagement rankings. Surprising inclusions in the top 10 among politicians were BJP Spokesperson Sambit Patra at #8 who clocked a 1.1 million engagements; Dr Kumar Vishwas at #5 who got 1.2 million engagements. <br /><br />Sonu Sood’s humanitarian work during the pandemic saw huge resonance on Twitter where even at a Twitter following of a tenth of super star Shah Rukh Khan (Sonu Sood’s 4.6 million followers to SRK’s 41.3 million followers) he topped Twitter engagement among Bollywood Stars with a phenomenal 2.4 million engagements. The Bollywood Badshah Shah Rukh Khan was at #2 with 7.3 lakh engagements. Akshay Kumar with 6.72 lakh engagements was at #3, and Anupam Kher with 4.74 lakh engagements was at #4. Former Maharashtra CM, the late Vilasrao Deshmukh’s actor-son Riteish Deshmukh was at #5 with 4.2 lakh engagements. Pooja Hegde was the surprise entrant into the top 10 with 2.51 lakh engagements. <br /><br />In the Business Leaders category, Anand Mahindra towers over others with over 4 lakh engagements. RPG Group’s Chief Harsh Goenka is at #2 with 2.2 lakh engagements. Chinese mobile phone brands India CEO’s Manu Kumar Jain of XiaoMi and RealMe’s Madhav Sheth are at #3 and #4 respectively with 1.5 lakh and 1.1 lakh engagements respectively. Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji with 49K engagements is at #5, Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw with 41K engagements at #6, Marico’s Harsh Mariwala with 24K engagements is at #7, Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma with 19K engagements at #8 and Chairman of JSPL and former MP, Naveen Jindal with 16K engagements is at #9. Google’s Global CEO Sundar Pichai with 15K engagements is at #10.<br /><br />The IPL was the flavour of the season for cricketers where expectedly India captain and expectant father Virat Kohli topped Twitter engagement with 2.4 million engagements. Suresh Raina was at #2 with 1.9 million engagements. Former stars Sachin Tendulkar at #3, Harbhajan Singh at #5, and Virendra Sehwag at #6, actively engage with fans and followers on Twitter with 1.5 million; 6.8 lakh and 6.3 lakh engagements. Aakash Chopra, now a commentator is also hugely popular and ranks #4 with over 9.65 lakh engagements on Twitter in October. Perennial favourite Mahendra Singh Dhoni was completely inactive on Twitter in October despite more than 8.1 million followers. <br /><br />Among Indian sports persons, outside of cricket, Olympic medallist and pro-boxer Vijendra Singh tops with 4.27 lakh engagements. Perhaps the India’s best kept secret in sports is veteran pistol shooter, coach and sports enthusiast 88-year old Dadi Chandro Tomar, better known as ‘Shooter Dadi’ from Baghpat, UP. Since learning to shoot when she was well into her sixties she has attained national fame as an accomplished shooter having won more than 30 national championships. She was at #2 in the non-cricket sports category with a phenomenal 2.84 lakh engagements leaving superstars like Saina Nehwal, Babita Phogat and Jwala Gutta behind!<br /><br />In the intensively competitive Journalists category, News Nation’s Deepak Chaurasia topped Twitter engagement with a whopping 1.88 million engagements. Aaj Tak’s Rohit Sardana was at #2 with 1.1 million engagement followed by Sushant Sinha with 1.05 million engagements. Veteran journalist and India Today’s Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai was at # 8 wit6 6.6 lakh engagements and Rana Ayyub was at #6 with 7.6 lakh engagements.<br /><br /><br />In other categories, Comedians and Start-up founders made their mark. Among comedians, Kunal Kamra topped impressively with 1.1 million engagements, followed by Ashish Chanchlani at #2 with 4.92 lakh engagements, Vir Das at #3 with 3.2 lakh engagements, Atul Khatri at #4 with 2.21 lakh engagements and Amit Bhadana with 1.1 lakh engagements at #5. Cred Founder Kunal Shah lead the Business Founders category with 60K engagements and Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma was next with 23K engagements.<br /><br />Said Twitteet co-founder Sandeep Amar: “Our core objective is to provide social business intelligence, social monitoring and actionable insights to the leaders across various domains and also to businesses and marketers. We run daily analysis of all engagements – which are the total of likes and retweets, collate these every month, across categories; and then slice and dice them to mine actionable insights. At some level a leaders Twitter engagement gives one sense of his connect with his constituents and what are the key issues that matter. We hope to sharpen this data over time and broad base our offerings to other social platforms and geographies.”<br />

Narendra Modi, Sonu Sood and Anand Mahindra top Indian Twitter engagement in October 2020, shows report

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-Trump-United-States-India/c635706bb5144bec9386352d86f2a0ea/17/0">Susan Walsh/AP</a></span></p><p class="caption">President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hug in the White House Rose Garden on June 26, 2017.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>The Indian government has repeatedly accused news outlets, including the BBC and Reuters, of reporting fake news about the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/kashmir">ongoing Kashmir crisis</a>.</strong></li><li><strong>Among other stories, those outlets reported that Indian security forces had shot at civilians with pellet guns and tortured people for information.</strong></li><li><strong><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Indian officials are widely believed </span>to have intimidated newsrooms and academics into not publishing their critical work, and paid people to troll critics online for years.</strong></li><li><strong>Experts told Insider this climate of fear has ramped up since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, and has also been encouraged by US President Donald Trump.</strong></li><li><strong>"Targeting the freedom of the press is a popular tactic used by authoritarian regimes to govern through fear," Angana Chatterji from the University of California, Berkeley, told Insider.</strong></li><li><strong>Insider reporters have received an uncommon number of inflammatory and abusive messages on Twitter and email accusing them of "fake news" and promoting "jihadi propaganda" after writing about Kashmir.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong></li></ul><p>The Indian government is taking a page out of President Donald Trump's playbook by relentlessly accusing journalists of publishing false reports about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/kashmir">the situation in Kashmir</a>, where millions of people have been cut off from the internet and the outside world for over five weeks.</p><p>Indian authorities have imposed a state-wide internet and phone blackout in the disputed region of Kashmir since the beginning of August, which has seen ordinary people <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8">unable to access the news</a> or communicate with people outside the region.</p><p>As of September 6, more than 3,800 people - including prominent local politicians - in the region have been arrested, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-kashmir-detentions/thousands-detained-in-indian-kashmir-crackdown-official-data-reveals-idUSKCN1VX142">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Men with pellet injuries being treated in Srinagar, a major city in Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 14, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Security forces have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-man-blinded-pellets-police-insist-no-major-injuries-2019-8">shot at people with pellet guns</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">tortured people living in villages known to be hubs</a> of anti-India militancy by beating them with sticks, giving them electric shocks, and filling their mouths with mud, multiple journalists on the ground have reported.</p><p>India's crackdown came after it <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-india-revoke-article-370-quasi-independence-internet-tourists-2019-8">removed a constitutional provision</a> in early August which guaranteed the independence of the Jammu and Kashmir region to make its own laws, and prevented outsiders from buying property in the mostly-Muslim region.</p><p>India has repeatedly shut down all of these reports, resorting to the widely-used refrain that the journalists were falsely reporting the news, even when there was video footage of the events transpiring. Here are a few instances:</p><ul><li>After the BBC <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/49306816/article-370-tear-gas-at-kashmir-rally-india-denies-happened">shot video footage</a> of thousands of people in Srinagar, a major city in Kashmir, demonstrating against India on August 10, the Indian government denied the protest ever happened.</li><li>On August 10, Indian Ministry of Home Affairs spokeswoman Vasudha Gupta tweeted that a <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-india-kashmir/thousands-protest-in-indian-kashmir-over-new-status-despite-clampdown-idUKKCN1UZ0OV">Reuters report</a> that said Indian police used tear gas and pellets to disperse the Srinagar protests - based on the testimony of a police officer and two witnesses - was "<a href="https://twitter.com/PIBHomeAffairs/status/1160081078486368256">completely fabricated &amp; incorrect</a>."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">The Indian army denied multiple allegations</a> of torture outlined in a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-49481180">BBC report from Kashmir</a> on August 29, calling them "baseless and unsubstantiated."</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-man-blinded-pellets-police-insist-no-major-injuries-2019-8">Kashmiri police shot down a CNN report</a>, also published August 29, which <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/28/asia/kashmir-survival-pellet-wounds-intl-hnk/index.html">cited a Srinagar resident</a> as saying he was blinded in one eye after being hit by three pellets, and a local hospital's eye unit as saying that it's treated at least 30 victims of pellet injuries that month. Police claimed that there had been "no major injuries to anybody," save for "a few pellet injuries, who were treated and sent back."</li></ul><p><strong><em>Read more:</em></strong><em> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-villagers-allege-beatings-abuse-electric-shock-india-denies-2019-8">Kashmiris say Indian officers tortured them and shoved mud in their mouths so they couldn't scream. The army denies it ever happened.</a></em></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Adnan Abidi/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Kashmiri protesters run for cover as Indian security forces fire teargas at them in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 23, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>India has been screaming 'fake news' for decades</h2><p>The Indian government resorting to fake-news accusations is nothing new - in fact, the government and its supporters have used this refrain for years. And it's only getting worse.</p><p>In 2014, the Press Council of India - the government's <keyword id="6354777" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Media">media</keyword> watchdog - denounced the reporting of mass rapes in 1991 by Indian security forces in the Kashmiri villages of Kunan and Poshpora as "<a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/kunan-poshpora-rape-charges-baseless/story-e4EzYdSFmxnax6Kna0rogM.html">baseless</a>," even as multiple women came out with allegations.</p><p>Earlier this year, the Indian government also <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-slams-un-rights-office-report-on-jk-as-continuation-of-false-narrative/articleshow/70127923.cms">slammed</a> an official UN report on Kashmir as a "false and motivated narrative" that violated the country's sovereignty. India has for decades maintained that only Pakistan and itself can be involved in Kashmir's issues.</p><p>These denials are working in India, where the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is growing increasingly authoritarian.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption"> Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in June 2019. </p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>India's climate of fear</h2><p>The Indian government is widely believed to employ an army of online trolls who attack journalists and critics online, as well as pressure people into reporting favorable coverage only.</p><p>It has never openly admitted to this, but circumstantial evidence all but confirms it. The government spent more than 52 billion rupees ($728 million) on pro-BJP ads and social-media posts between 2014 and 2018, India's <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/govt-has-spent-over-rs-5200-cr-in-ads-since-2014-15-rathore-in-ls/articleshow/67077392.cms">Economic Times reported</a>.</p><p>The BJP also hires hundreds of thousands of people to recruit voters via phone and door knocks, ultimately helping build "the most extraordinary personality cult in modern Indian history," Indian politician <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/narendra-modi-india-election-personality-cult-by-shashi-tharoor-2019-05">Shashi Tharoor said</a>.</p><p>"The government denies something on one level, and then its army of trolls and people in [civil] society follow," Hafsa Kanjwal, a South Asia and Kashmir expert and assistant professor at Lafayette College, told Insider.</p><p>"Basically if you question that, they say that you're being anti-national, or you're putting India at risk by questioning the state narrative, or that you're falling into Pakistan. They use these age-old tropes to bring people into line."</p><p>Insider has received an uncommon number of inflammatory and abusive messages on Twitter and email accusing this reporter and another at Insider writing about Kashmir of publishing "jihadi propaganda" and "fake news," and of being paid to report critical news on the region. </p><p>Insider is unable to confirm whether such messages are in any way directly linked with reports of state-sponsored trolls.</p><p>Arvind Rajagopal, a media studies professor at New York University, also told Insider: "I've seen several thousand people being employed to post BJP-friendly messages online and make life difficult for their opponents."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Adnan Abidi/Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Smoke rises from teargas shells fired by Indian security forces in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, on August 23, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Civil institutions like universities and newsrooms are intimidated into silence. Researchers have told of advisers not allowing them to say anything too critical of the government, and critical reports being censored.</p><p>"Basically the media are terrified now of saying anything the government doesn't want them to say because they get attacked not necessarily online, they get attacked behind the scenes," Rajagopal said. "They get telephone calls from the prime minister's office saying: 'What do you think you're doing?'"</p><p>Those who do speak out are publicly smeared in an effort to intimidate them into silence.</p><p>For example, Indian investigative journalist Rana Ayyub, wrote a <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gujarat-Files-Anatomy-cover-up/dp/1533341524">book</a> about a state government cover-up concerning the 2002 Gujarati Riots, which left over 1,000 people dead.</p><p>Ayyub <a href="https://medium.com/global-editors-network/rana-ayyub-on-online-harassment-in-india-i-get-daily-rape-death-threats-c970f542e554">described in an interview with the Global Editors Network</a> getting daily rape and death threats, being doxxed, and having her image superimposed on a viral porn video after her critical work was published.</p><p>Kanjwal said: "The government finds a way to send a message across and let people know that if they push back against this narrative, then they'll make it very difficult for them."</p><p>She and Rajagopal both said, in separate conversations with Insider, that they personally know Indian academics who have been smeared or intimidated into silence.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Kashmiri residents throw stones at Indian security forces during protests.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The ongoing lockdown and communications blackout in Kashmir is also making it difficult for reporters to travel around the region and to file stories online.</p><p>Ordinary citizens are also unable to access the news online. Shortly after the blackout many <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kashmir-blackout-locals-dont-know-india-revoked-autonomy-report-2019-8">didn't even know that India rewrote its constitution</a>, Kashmiri journalist Fahad Shah <a href="https://time.com/5646005/inside-kashmir-communication-shutdown/">wrote in TIME</a> last month.</p><p>"Exerting harsh control over communications is being used to influence the public's impression and experience of governance," Angana Chatterji, the co-chair of University of California, Berkeley's Political Conflict, Gender and People's Rights Initiative, told Insider.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Greater Kashmir</span></p><p class="caption">The local Greater Kashmir daily newspaper's front page as on September 16, 2019. The front page has been blank since early August.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Trump is encouraging this 'textbook fascist' behavior</h2><p>Though this behavior has existed long before Trump and Modi, the US president's arrival on the world stage has encouraged it, experts say.</p><p>"There are so many similarities in general between an ideology like Trump's and Modi's, which is exclusivist, relies on fear of the other, which doesn't address real issues that people are going through but distract people," Kanjwal said.</p><p>"It's very textbook fascist."</p><p>Other countries with strong-willed authoritarian leaders have also launched attacks on critical journalists and intellectuals who they see as threatening their hold on power:</p><ul><li>Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese officials have routinely clamped down on reporting on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/xinjiang">oppressed Uighur Muslim minority</a> by repeatedly <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/05/fake-news-china-dismisses-reports-about-detention-of-uighurs">denying</a> reports of their forced incarceration and claiming that the detentions are "free vocational training."</li><li>Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-fake-news-exporter-bans-putin-bill-2019-3">one of the world's premier sources of fake news</a>, and hosts campaigns that aim to spread misinformation around the world.</li><li>Pro-government newspapers in Turkey have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46137139">published hundreds of false stories</a> and <a href="https://observers.france24.com/en/20160718-turkey-coup-attempt-fake-images">doctored photographs</a> about President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's opponents.</li><li>Critical media outlets in the Philippines, <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/3003752/philippines-arrests-rappler-co-founder-journalist-maria">such as Rappler</a>, have been hit with multiple criminal charges and arrests under President Rodrigo Duterte.</li></ul><p>"There is a growing authoritarianism within [these] countries that rely on similar strategies of suppressing dissent or trying to undermine these [civic] institutions," Kanjwal said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Carlos Barria/Reuters; Leah Millis/Reuters; Jacquelyn Martin/AP</span></p><p class="caption">A composite image of Modi, Trump, and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Will this ever end?</h2><p>Experts say these scare tactics are likely to continue in India, where the strategy of cowing critics into silence is working.</p><p>Despite being one of the world's largest democracies, a large portion of ordinary Indians tow the party line because of the traditional lack of political discourse in the country, Rajagopal said.</p><p>"At some level it's about the latency of India's political democracy and the lack of a deep tradition of debate, arguments, and public disagreement," he said.</p><p>"There is a cultural aspect to this conformism, which is basically an unwillingness to publicly disagree and a willingness to bury your disagreement - which is really the response of an old colonized population."</p><p>Chatterji added: "Targeting the freedom of the press is a popular tactic used by authoritarian regimes to govern through fear.</p><p>"In India, this is likely to continue, and perhaps even escalate, under a majoritarian government."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/reporter-luke-harding-explains-life-under-fsb-surveillance-2017-12">A reporter who lived in Russia for 4 years reveals what it was like being stalked by Russian spies</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

India is replaying Trump's favorite strategy by accusing the media of fake news in Kashmir, where it cut off the internet and tried to silence journalists

Indian Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword>’s praise for her Bangladeshi counterpart <keyword id="66026" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sheikh-Hasina">Sheikh Hasina</keyword> went sour when he lauded her over fighting terrorism “despite being a woman”.<br />
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Modi, while addressing Dhaka University on his two-day visit to the neighbouring nation, praised Hasina but his ‘despite being a woman’ statement raised many eyebrows.<br />
<br />
"I am happy that Bangladesh Prime Minister, despite being a woman, has declared zero tolerance for terrorism,” Modi had said.<br />
<br />
What Modi must have meant was that despite hardships faced by a woman, Hasina tackled terrorism but Twitter users took it as an insult.<br />
<br />
#Despitebeingawoman was trending on Twitter with tweeps posting pictures of Indian politicians, athletes, educationists, etc who have achieved various feats.<br />
<br />
Some people even raked up old wounds when Modi in 2012 had called Shashi Tharoor’s deceased wife Sunanda Pushkar “50 crore ki girlfriend”.<br />
<br />
Twitterati did not even spare her wife Jashodaben.<br />
<br />
Here’s how Twitter reacted to #Despitebeingawoman<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
	<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
		<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DespiteBeingAWoman?src=hash">#DespiteBeingAWoman</a> she did not fight for her rights as his legally wedded wife nor for the respect accorded to a PM's wife in 7 RCR.</p>
	— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) <a href="https://twitter.com/RanaAyyub/status/607782730860883968">June 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
	<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
		Woke up, showered, had breakfast, crossed the road, made it to work on time. All by myself, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DespiteBeingAWoman?src=hash">#DespiteBeingAWoman</a>.</p>
	— Agratha Dinakaran (@Agratha) <a href="https://twitter.com/Agratha/status/607782160209047552">June 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
	<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
		How can you even say or think <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/despitebeingawoman?src=hash">#despitebeingawoman</a> when your own country had a great female PM way before most first world countries! Shame!</p>
	— Amena (@Fashionopolis) <a href="https://twitter.com/Fashionopolis/status/607765373463621635">June 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
	<p dir="ltr" lang="und">
		"<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DespiteBeingAWoman?src=hash">#DespiteBeingAWoman</a>" <a href="http://t.co/JtGVFL58jD">pic.twitter.com/JtGVFL58jD</a></p>
	— Brumby(No MSG Found) (@brownbrumby) <a href="https://twitter.com/brownbrumby/status/607757471340335105">June 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
	<p dir="ltr" lang="en">
		Despite being a woman, Jashodaben is going from authority to authority not getting an answer to her queries. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DespiteBeingAWoman?src=hash">#DespiteBeingAWoman</a></p>
	— कनिका गहलौत (@kanikagahlaut) <a href="https://twitter.com/kanikagahlaut/status/607758076813307904">June 8, 2015</a></blockquote>
(Image: PIB)<br />

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