‘Subject to major troll attacks, get more answers than Modi ji’: Bhavish Aggarwal
Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal said in a tweet on Wednesday that he and his company are exposed to some of the biggest troll attacks. He also said his response gets more responses than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweets, even though he only has some of the prime minister’s followers.
Aggarwal’s tweet was in response to a popular Twitter user’s tweet, citing a report from Livemint that said Ola used a network of questionable accounts to drown out criticism.
“On the contrary, @OlaElectric & I’m exposed to one of the biggest troll attacks in corporate India. My tweets now get more responses than even Modiji’s tweets despite a fraction of his followers! And all copy-paste negative answers. This reply to the tweets will also just prove my point! (sic), said Aggarwal.
He responded to a tweet from the popular account ‘The DeshBhakt’, saying that many companies use social media to push their message out, “but no one comes close to @bhash when it comes to pushing dubious social media accounts “.
The account had tweeted an investigation report from Livemint, saying the company used a network of questionable social media accounts to troll Balwant Singh, a Guwahati state employee who had tweeted that his son was suffering serious injuries due to a technical error in his Ola S1 Pro. Singh said his son Reetam, a lawyer at Guwahati High Court, sustained injuries after his Ola S1 Pro accelerated as it had to brake, injuring the lawyer.
The report stated that there were accounts that blamed Reetam Singh for speeding, something the company had stated in its statement. Two handles stated that Singh activated his Twitter account eight years later to extort money from Ola. Many tweeted pictures of the accident, saying that if the allegations were true, Reetam Singh would have suffered far worse injuries. Some accounts also accused rival players of unfair play.
Many of these accounts work in a coordinated way to trend other topics or other brands, indicating that they are controlled by digital media agencies or freelance networks, the report added. Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd (HPCL), Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), Disney + Hotstar, RealMe, Naveen Jindal, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Ajay Bhat are other handles retweeted by these accounts, it added.
The survey report added that around 100 Twitter accounts are working to like, retweet and applaud positive tweets from the company.
Aggarwal told the newspaper last month that negative reviews for the scooters were mostly ‘noise’ and that critics paid huge sums to get the mark down.
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