#MeToo's Twitter Gatekeepers Power a People's Campaign in India
- Unlike in U.S., Indian movement erupted initially on Twitter
- Google visualization shows India ablaze with #MeToo searches
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It was a seemingly harmless tweet that enraged Mahima Kukreja and put the 28-year-old on the frontline of India’s #MeToo firestorm.
The advertising professional was on her way to work Oct. 4 when she saw a message from popular comedian Utsav Chakraborty, who has a television show and nearly 50,000 Twitter followers, about a recent incident of Indian men behaving badly on a cruise ship in Australia, which he said was an “embarrassment” to fellow citizens. Wasn’t this the same person who’d sent her an unsolicited photograph of a penis two years ago?