‘Subject to biggest troll attacks, get more replies than Modi ji’: Bhavish Aggarwal

Ola co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal said in a tweet on Wednesday that he and his company are subject to some of the biggest troll attacks. He also said that his replies get more replies than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweets even though he has only a portion of the PM’s followers. 

Aggarwal’s tweet was in response to a popular Twitter user’s tweet quoting a report by Livemint that said that Ola used a network of dubious accounts to drown criticism. 

“On contrary, @OlaElectric & I are subject to one of the biggest troll attacks in corporate India. My tweets now get more replies than even Modiji’s tweets despite fraction of his followers! And all copy paste negative replies. This tweet’s replies also will just prove my point! (sic),” said Aggarwal.

He was replying to a tweet by popular account ‘The DeshBhakt’ that said 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 investigative report by Livemint that stated that the company used a network of questionable social media accounts to troll Balwant Singh, a government employee from Guwahati who had tweeted about his son suffering grievous injuries due to a technical glitch in his Ola S1 Pro. Singh said that his son Reetam, a lawyer at Gauhati High Court, sustained injuries after his Ola S1 Pro accelerated when it was supposed to brake, hurtling the lawyer. 

The report stated that there were accounts that blamed Reetam Singh for overspeeding, something that 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 images of the accident and said that if the allegations were true, Reetam Singh would have suffered far worse injuries. Some accounts also accused rival players of foul play. 

Many of these accounts work in a coordinated fashion to trend other topics or other brands, which indicate 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 that are retweeted by these accounts, it added. 

The investigative report added that around 100 Twitter accounts work to like, retweet, and applaud positive tweets by the company. 

Aggarwal told the daily last month that negative reviews for the scooters were mostly ‘noise’ and that detractors were paying huge sums of money to bring the brand down.

Also read: Amid rise in consumer complaints, CCPA seeks Ola, Uber pricing details

Also read: Ola S1 Pro accident: Company issues statement on Guwahati scooter mishap