Twitter’s response

When quizzed by National Herald on its policy of allowing religiously provocative content to trend, Deborah NG from Twitter’s Asia Pacific Communications’ Team pointed towards the Twitter rules that say that offensive content of political significance could be highlighted by the social media site.

The rules state that trends were determined by algorithm and were tailored for users “based on who you follow, your interests, and your location.”

“This algorithm identifies topics that are popular now, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help you discover the hottest emerging topics of discussion on Twitter,” the rules state.

However, in the past, the BJP IT Cell has been accused of hiring “influencers” hired by public relations firms to create trends.

Dhruv Rathee, an Indian based out of an undisclosed overseas location and having a Youtube channel with more than 89,000 followers pointed out in a video last year that all engineered trends come with trending hashtags and at specific set times.