There is no guarantee to what you'll find on the Internet. A parody Twitter account of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, which goes by the ‘@RoflGandhi_’, has started a hilarious, albeit impossible, petition on change.org seeking to get WhatsApp uninstalled from the phones of businessman Anand Mahindra and Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan.
“A megastar and a renowned industrialist are falling prey to fake news & bizarre content being fed to them via Whatsapp. We need to restore the dignity of two gentlemen. Through this petition we are requesting Mark Zuckerberg to disable Whatsapp on their numbers,” the petition, with a seemingly humorous take, reads.
The petition, being sent to Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also emerged as one of the top trends on Twitter. Facebook owns WhatsApp — the instant messaging application.
The plea comes after “insensitive” tweets, misinformation forwards and fake news shared by the two.
Mahindra is known for his humour on social media. However, a recent post seemed to backfire with many claiming it was "insensitive".
The 64-year-old had shared a picture of a mother and a toddler wearing masks made out of leaves, and said he hoped it would become an iconic image during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s not just about #MaskIndia but also a greener world. A reminder that nature already provides us with all that we need..,” he had tweeted.
However, comedian Aditi Mittal, among others, pointed out that this was not something to be celebrated. "Anand, this is NOTHING to be celebrated. There is NO EVIDENCE that wearing a leaf provides ANY kind of protection," Mittal wrote. "They are not doing this environmental awareness, they are doing this because govs who were supposed to provide them this life saving mask have forsaken them," she added.
Mahindra responded by accepting his mistake, saying: “You’re right, I can see how my tweet appeared insensitive to the inequity of the situation. I’ve deleted it.”
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Earlier, Bachchan had drawn flak on social media for quoting misinformation that sound vibrations and clapping can stop the novel coronavirus.
On April 6, Bachchan had retweeted a fake image of India as seen from space, lit up with diyas.
A Twitter user had posted the image along with the message: "When the world was wavering! Hindustan was shining! Today's picture is telling this."
Bachchan quote retweeted the photo by writing, "The World sees us.. we are ONE.."
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The World sees us .. we are ONE .. https://t.co/68k9NagfkI— Amitabh Bachchan (@SrBachchan) April 5, 2020
