{"id":825,"date":"2021-05-28T03:27:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T08:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/?p=825"},"modified":"2021-05-28T03:27:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T08:27:26","slug":"congresstoolkit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/?p=825","title":{"rendered":"#CongressToolkit on Twitter, an examination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joyojeet Pal, Rynaa Grover<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cite Grover, Rynaa, Pal, Joyojeet. 2021. #CongressToolkit on Twitter, an examination\u00a0 Online at\u00a0https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/congresstoolkit)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We examined the engagement with #CongressToolkit for 5 days between May 18 \u2013 May 22 by pulling the tweets of politicians and influencers that used the hashtag. The resultant dataset included 1609 unique tweets, cumulatively retweeted over 1.95 million times in that period. We present an analysis of some of the key themes.<\/p>\n

The first day the toolkit was did its rounds on Twitter as a Congress conspiracy, in the days that followed, in the aftermath of a factchecked report, the story took new angles. A second twist came\u00a0following Twitter\u2019s marking of one of the key tweets as \u2018manipulated.\u2019<\/p>\n

We primarily examined the first phase of discussion around the toolkit.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Frequency and Timing<\/strong><\/p>\n

First, we look at the frequency of tweets about the CongressToolkit. The pattern here is fairly clear, the peak of activity happened in the early half of the day on May 18. While BJP politician Sambit Patra was credited in the news as being the early driver of the story, the first recorded tweet from an influential account came from account @PMOIndia_RC at on the morning of May 18.<\/p>\n

The core phase of activity came\u00a0in the early half of May 18,\u00a0when ten major BJP politicians, each with 500k or more followers engaged with the subject.\u00a0 A look at the spread of tweets about the toolkit shows a large amount of engagement in the early half of May 18.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Figure 1: Timeline of tweeting about #CongressToolkit, number of original tweets from influencer accounts (minimum 5000 followers)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We see that while the story remains in the news into May 19, the number of tweets on the issue from BJP influencers dropped. Looking at the public reaction (as measured through retweets) we find that the core engagement around the issue dropped dramatically by the second half of May 19, suggesting that the AltNews\u00a0factchecked story (on May 19) impacted the uptake for the issue. We see only one spike in engagement on the toolkit, during the second half of May 21, mainly in the aftermath of the Twitter tagging of Sambit Patra\u2019s tweet as manipulated media by Twitter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Figure 2: Engagement of tweets about #CongressToolkit, measured through retweets<\/p>\n

When we look at who engaged the material, we see a pattern of several key BJP leaders amplifying the tweets in a very short period of time. The first network to break the story was News Nation TV, within two hours of the first messages on the issue, but mainstream news did not break the story till much later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Key Accounts Amplifying CongressToolkit<\/strong><\/p>\n

There were a whopping 64 instances of a BJP leader with over 500k followers tweeting about the toolkit in the first 10-hour period following the first use of the #CongressToolkit hashtag. Table 1 shows us the most influential Twitter handles in the #CongressToolkit tweeting between May 18-21. We see that while Sambit Patra got a lot of attention for his first tweet and its flagging as false, Karnataka MP Tejasvi Surya was the most influential in terms of overall engagement with the issue. \u00a0Ironically, the only major politician who retweeted a message against the toolkit was Subramanian Swamy who attacked <\/a>the \u2018low-lives of BJP IT Cell\u2019 for trending #CongressToolkit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Table 1: Most engaged (retweets) politicians on #CongressToolkit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Handle<\/td>\nTweets about #CongressToolkit<\/td>\nTotal Retweets to their messages on #CongressToolkit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tejasvi_Surya<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n29151<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
MrsGandhi<\/td>\n17<\/td>\n24525<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
smritiirani<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n22772<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
amitmalviya<\/td>\n19<\/td>\n22422<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
KapilMishra_IND<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n21336<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ShefVaidya<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n19538<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
sambitswaraj<\/td>\n19<\/td>\n12145<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TajinderBagga<\/td>\n20<\/td>\n12120<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sunil_Deodhar<\/td>\n12<\/td>\n8621<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
blsanthosh<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n6007<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, the more interesting action may be in a second layer of influencers, who are not top-shelf politicians, but who nonetheless exert much power over the prevalent political discourse. On May 18, we recorded over 1100 original tweets, not counting retweets, by Twitter handles that had more than 10,000 followers, using the term #CongressToolkit. This gives us a sense of the scope of the machinery and its ability to aggressively and successfully promote an idea. Incredibly, we find that all ten handles were followed by the official handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Table 2: Twitter handles that tweeted out the most messages on #CongressToolkit (>15k followers) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Twitter Handle<\/strong><\/td>\nAccount Type<\/strong><\/td>\nTweets about #CongressToolkit<\/strong><\/td>\nWhether Followed by Narendra Modi<\/strong><\/td>\nFollowers<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sootradhar<\/td>\nUnnamed Fan Account<\/td>\n59<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n64265<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ibhagwa_n<\/td>\nUnnamed Fan Account<\/td>\n50<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n134012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rohit_chahal<\/td>\nBJP Worker<\/td>\n47<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n65490<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ModiBharosa<\/td>\nUnnamed Fan Account<\/td>\n40<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n62131<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
bhav2406<\/td>\nIndependent Citizen Account<\/td>\n40<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n17766<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
bjpsamvad<\/td>\nBJP Official Account<\/td>\n34<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n315877<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Prafullaketkar<\/td>\nEditor of RSS Weekly Organiser<\/td>\n33<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n38968<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
NavroopSingh_<\/td>\nIndependent Citizen Account<\/td>\n25<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n33255<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
upma23<\/td>\nIndependent Citizen Account<\/td>\n24<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n141507<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shreeharib1<\/td>\nBJP Worker<\/td>\n23<\/td>\nYes<\/td>\n30187<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n

We find that overall, media engagement with the issue remained spotty. While News Nation TV first broke the story, the channel that most engaged the content was News 24, with its anchor Manak Gupta who amplifying the #CongressToolkit hashtag. Indeed, as BJP-aligned influencer Shefali Vaidya pointed out on May 19, \u201cNot one word in today\u2019s newspapers about the #CongressToolKit. Tells you the hold @INCIndia has on traditional media still.\u201d<\/p>\n

Listed on Table 3 are the most retweeted messages about the issue, and can be examined for the textual patterns. One important tactic is also worth noting. By late on May 18, there was little mainstream news coverage, at which point the event was associated to individual persons.<\/p>\n

This led to the doxing of Saumya Varma, an official at former Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Gowda\u2019s office, who was outed in a coordinated fashion starting at in the morning of May 19 by multiple accounts (including @ModiBharosa, @upma23, bhav2406, who are among the most aggressive engagers on the hashtag), as the brain behind the toolkit. This messaging was not just done by the influencers, but also by senior BJP leaders Suresh Nakhua and Amit Malviya, all within two hours of the initial outing. This is typically a useful engagement technique for viral messaging, since it creates a virtual enemy that social media users can focus on. Another individual targeted systematically, by multiple accounts, was journalist Sonia Faleiro.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Table 3: Timeline of 20 most retweeted messages, arranged by date and time <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Date<\/strong><\/td>\nTweet<\/strong><\/td>\nRT<\/strong><\/td>\nUser<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 5:35<\/td>\nFriends look at the #CongressToolKit in extending help to the needy during the Pandemic!
\nMore of a PR exercise with the help of \u201cFriendly Journalists\u201d & \u201cInfluencers\u201d than a soulful endeavour.
\nRead for yourselves the agenda of the Congress:
\n#CongressToolKitExposed https:\/\/t.co\/3b7c2GN0re<\/a><\/td>\n		5015<\/td>\nsambitswaraj<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 8:11<\/td>\nThey day after I exposed hospital bed allocation\u00a0 irregularities in Bengaluru, every Congress leader personally attacked me, supported by ecosystem media.<\/p>\n

More than 60k tweets spewing hatred were tweeted in 24 hrs.<\/p>\n

All of this was executed as per #CongressToolkitExposed.<\/td>\n

3693<\/td>\nTejasvi_Surya<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 8:19<\/td>\nIt\u2019s disgusting that Congress &amp; it\u2019s ecosystem are using biggest pandemic in last century to score political points against PM Modi.<\/p>\n

Rejoicing deaths, defaming county by international publications &amp; deliberately spreading misinformation – is criminal.<\/p>\n

#Congresstoolkitexposed<\/td>\n

9066<\/td>\nTejasvi_Surya<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 8:20<\/td>\n\u0930\u093e\u0939\u0941\u0932 \u0917\u093e\u0902\u0927\u0940 \u0914\u0930 \u0915\u093e\u0902\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0938 \u0938\u0924\u094d\u0924\u093e \u0915\u0947 \u0932\u093f\u090f \u0915\u093f\u0938 \u0939\u0926\u094d\u0926 \u0924\u0915 \u0917\u093f\u0930 \u0938\u0915\u0924\u0947 \u0939\u0948 \u0914\u0930 \u0907\u0938\u092e\u0947\u0902 \u0915\u0947\u091c\u0930\u0940\u0935\u093e\u0932 \u091c\u0948\u0938\u0947 \u092a\u0930\u091c\u0940\u0935\u0940 \u0915\u093f\u0924\u0928\u093e \u091c\u0939\u0930 \u0918\u094b\u0932 \u0938\u0915\u0924\u0947 \u0939\u0948 \u0935\u094b \u0938\u092c \u0938\u093e\u092e\u0928\u0947 \u0906 \u0917\u092f\u093e<\/p>\n

\u0926\u0947\u0936 \u0915\u0947 \u0916\u093f\u0932\u093e\u092b \u0932\u0917\u093e\u0924\u093e\u0930 \u0938\u093e\u091c\u093f\u0936 \u0936\u0930\u094d\u092e\u0928\u093e\u0915 \u0939\u0948\u0902 , \u0918\u091f\u093f\u092f\u093e \u0939\u0948
\n#CongressToolKitExposed https:\/\/t.co\/bMtc3RCzOM<\/td>\n

6289<\/td>\nKapilMishra_IND<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 8:24<\/td>\n– Assist foreign journalists with sightings of funerals & dead bodies. Facilitate journalists who use ‘dramatic’ pictures, make sure their reporting is magnified.<\/p>\n

– Use words \u2018Indian strain\u2019 & ‘Modi strain’.<\/p>\n

– Block hospital beds.<\/p>\n

This is pure evil!!<\/p>\n

#CongressToolkitExposed https:\/\/t.co\/lCDgIJjdhg<\/td>\n

3632<\/td>\nMrsGandhi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 8:50<\/td>\nThe #CongressToolkitExposed clearly instructs cadre & ecosystem to block beds in hospitals to create artificial scarcity.<\/p>\n

No wonder entire ecosystem pounced on me with fake propaganda from the minute I exposed bed allocation irregularities in Bengaluru.<\/td>\n

8496<\/td>\nTejasvi_Surya<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 9:04<\/td>\nCongress has mastered art of political vulturism.<\/p>\n

For their politics to flourish, they want India to suffer & bleed.<\/p>\n

In Bharat\u2019s defeat, they seek their political revival.<\/p>\n

#Congresstoolkitexposed shows their toxic & deplorable existence. https:\/\/t.co\/03O8M6A1IU<\/td>\n

4466<\/td>\nTejasvi_Surya<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 9:30<\/td>\n\u092f\u0947 \u0939\u0948\u0902 \u0930\u093e\u0939\u0941\u0932 \u0917\u093e\u0902\u0927\u0940 \u0914\u0930 \u0915\u093e\u0902\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0938 \u0915\u093e \u0938\u091a<\/p>\n

\u0939\u093f\u0928\u094d\u0926\u0942 \u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e \u0915\u094b \u092c\u0926\u0928\u093e\u092e \u0915\u0930\u094b , \u0915\u0941\u092e\u094d\u092d \u0915\u094b \u0917\u093e\u0932\u0940 \u0914\u0930 \u0908\u0926 \u0915\u0940 \u092e\u0939\u093e\u0928 \u092c\u0924\u093e\u0913<\/p>\n

\u0915\u094b\u0930\u094b\u0928\u093e \u0915\u094b \u092a\u0942\u0930\u0940 \u0926\u0941\u0928\u093f\u092f\u093e \u092e\u0947\u0902 \u092d\u093e\u0930\u0924 \u0938\u0947 \u092b\u0948\u0932\u0940 \u092c\u0940\u092e\u093e\u0930\u0940 \u092c\u0924\u093e\u0913<\/p>\n

\u0935\u093f\u0926\u0947\u0936\u0940 \u092a\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b\u0902 \u0915\u094b \u0932\u093e\u0936\u094b\u0902 \u0915\u0947 \u0922\u0947\u0930 \u0926\u093f\u0916\u093e\u0913<\/p>\n

\u0926\u0947\u0936 \u0914\u0930 \u092e\u094b\u0926\u0940 \u0915\u094b \u0917\u093e\u0932\u0940 \u0926\u094b
\n#CongressToolkitExposed https:\/\/t.co\/htFIcnCNyx<\/td>\n

4801<\/td>\nKapilMishra_IND<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 9:35<\/td>\n\u201cRespond to help only if a person tags the IYC handle\u201d … understandable when\u00a0 \u2018death\u2019 becomes a vote bank.
\n#CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n		6951<\/td>\nsmritiirani<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 9:52<\/td>\n\u2018Shame Hindu, Blame Hindu\u2019 tactic of \u201cprovisional\u201d Janeudhari Rahul Gandhi … blame Kumbh to shame Hindus …<\/p>\n

\u092c\u093f\u0932\u094d\u0932\u0940 \u092d\u0940 \u0915\u0941\u091b \u0918\u0930 \u091b\u094b\u0921\u093c \u0915\u0947 \u092e\u0941\u0901\u0939 \u092e\u093e\u0930\u0924\u0940 \u0939\u0948 … \u0905\u092a\u0928\u0940 \u0926\u093e\u0926\u0940 \u0915\u093e \u0927\u0930\u094d\u092e \u0924\u094b \u092c\u0916\u094d\u0936 \u0926\u0947\u0924\u0947 \u091c\u0928\u093e\u092c\u0964<\/p>\n

#CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n

7631<\/td>\nsmritiirani<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 10:04<\/td>\nDividing society and spewing venom against others\u2026.Congress is a master at this. India is seeing Congress\u2019 antics, while the nation is fighting COVID-19. I would urge Congress to go beyond \u2019Toolkit Models\u2019 and do something constructive. #CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n5267<\/td>\nJPNadda<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 10:11<\/td>\nDividing India & attempting to fracture the Indian social fabric with communal hatred is Congress\u2019s second nature.<\/p>\n

Disgraceful to see the Congress party & its leaders engaging in political deception to mislead citizens & create roadblocks for the Nation.
\n#CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n

3871<\/td>\nPiyushGoyal<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 10:40<\/td>\nMy country, our country is at war with a virus. I can understand the opposition would want to attack the Govt. But to singularly commercialise it as a political opportunity & deal in death; I never imagined Congress was capable of such a low. #CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n3990<\/td>\nsmritiirani<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 11:40<\/td>\nSonia Faleiro daughter of Cong MP Eduardo Falerio labels variant as \u201cIndian Variant & Modi variant\u201d #CongressToolkitExposed https:\/\/t.co\/6I3EnKCK57<\/td>\n4723<\/td>\nTajinderBagga<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 15:15<\/td>\nWe all can have differences of ideology, opinions & faiths!
\nBUTWhy is Congress party so desperate to use the word \u2018Indian\u2019 Strain?Why anti India stands each and every time?#CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n		3879<\/td>\nDev_Fadnavis<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 16:38<\/td>\n\u0938\u092c\u0938\u0947 \u092c\u0921\u093c\u093e \u0938\u0935\u093e\u0932 \u0909\u0928 \u0926\u094b \u0915\u094c\u0921\u093c\u0940 \u0915\u0947 \u092c\u093f\u0915\u093e\u090a\u0902 \u092a\u0924\u094d\u0930\u0915\u093e\u0930\u094b\u0902 \u092a\u0930 \u091c\u094b \u0915\u093e\u0902\u0917\u094d\u0930\u0947\u0938 \u0915\u0940 \u091f\u0942\u0932 \u0915\u093f\u091f \u0915\u0947 \u0939\u093f\u0938\u093e\u092c \u0938\u0947 \u091f\u094d\u0935\u0940\u091f \u0915\u0930 \u0930\u0939\u0947 \u0925\u0947<\/p>\n

#CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n

10556<\/td>\nKapilMishra_IND<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 17:20<\/td>\nOnce a traitor always a traitor
\n#CongressToolkitExposed https:\/\/t.co\/fiRjOJKOAM<\/td>\n		4019<\/td>\nTajinderBagga<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 18 17:41<\/td>\nIndian citizens after reading #CongressToolKit :<\/p>\n

INC – Indian National CONgress \u274c
\nINC – Indian Anti-National CONgress \u2705<\/p>\n

#CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n

4040<\/td>\nStringReveals<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 19 2:43<\/td>\nRahul Gandhi\u2019s former business partner\u2019s wife @SoniaFaleiro was amongst the first to use the term \u201cModi Variant\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sonia is\u00a0wife\u00a0of Ulrik McKnight, @RahulGandhi’s business partner in Backops, consulting firm he founded in 2003.<\/p>\n

#CongressToolkitExposed<\/p>\n

https:\/\/t.co\/DGYBwgeUCY<\/td>\n

4582<\/td>\nMrsGandhi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 19 3:40<\/td>\nNot one word in today\u2019s newspapers about the #CongressToolKit. Tells you the hold @INCIndia has on traditional media still. #CongressToolkitExposed<\/td>\n4604<\/td>\nShefVaidya<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joyojeet Pal, Rynaa Grover (Cite Grover, Rynaa, Pal, Joyojeet. 2021. #CongressToolkit on Twitter, an examination\u00a0 Online at\u00a0https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/congresstoolkit)     We examined the engagement with #CongressToolkit for 5 days between May 18 \u2013 May 22 by pulling the tweets of politicians and influencers that used the hashtag. The resultant dataset included 1609 unique tweets, cumulatively retweeted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyojeet.people.si.umich.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}