Jai Ho! 2016 was a special year for Indians to join the global conversations on Twitter as well as for India to start global conversations on the world’s largest live communications platform. This year, Twitter reflected and influenced Indian society that was united together in celebration, victory, protests, revolutionary reforms, crises, and significant cultural moments. Twitter gives people a voice and the people of India empowered themselves to speak up, to help, to inspire, to debate, to build safer and healthier cities, to ask for better public services, and to build communities together.
The country’s trending moments became worldwide conversations on Twitter, be it PM Modi’s revolutionary demonetization reform(Most Influential Moment of the Year), Delhi’s rising pollution problem, the debut of Global Citizen Festival in India, and the Bollywood glam at the Filmfare Awards. Meanwhile, proud Indian voices joined the global Twitter community when India’s women athletes broke new ground at the Rio 2016 Olympics, cricketers ViratKohli and MS Dhoni achieved milestone successes at the international World T20 tournament, and global cultural celebrations took place for Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi and the International Day of Yoga.
PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, and DipaKarmakar, India’s women athletes that won a million hearts on Twitter during the Olympics made #Rio2016 the Top Hashtag Trend of the Year on Twitter. Their medal victories and near-misses inspired women everywhere, and showcased a spirit of unwavering determination and grit.
ViratKohli's Tweet in support of Anushka Sharma was the Golden Tweet or the most Retweeted Tweet of 2016. He encouraged his fans and critics, who attributed his outstanding performance in the ICC World T20 to their break-up, to focus instead on empathy and community building. It's an emphatic example of an Indian youth icon using Twitter’s public platform to change the conversation by standing up for the woman in his life and advocating a more positive online behavior. It was well-appreciated by his Twitter followers and other like-minded individuals, which helped make it go viral on Twitter.
