Rajini clarifies on COVID-19 message, Twitter thanks him

In a tweet, Rajinikanth said he had mentioned in the video posted on Saturday that the spread of the virus could be stopped and also could prevent it entering the third stage if the people did not venture out of their homes for 12-14 hours.

“But it was widely misunderstood that it could be achieved by remaining in the home for a day. Hence, the Twitter management removed it,” he wrote on Sunday. Meanwhile, the handle of Twitter India retweeted Rajinikanth’s clarification stating that ‘Thalaiva thank you for joining us in ensuring the dissemination of accurate information about COVID-19.’ Twitter on Saturday removed a video uploaded by Rajinikanth supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Janata Curfew. 

The microblogging website found factual discrepancies in his post about the cycle of infection of the novel coronavirus. “We can prevent the virus from entering the third stage if people stay indoors and for that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced Janata Curfew on March 22,” the 69-year-old actor said in a video message. The Italian government had announced a similar curfew, but people did not heed it and because of that a lot of lives were lost to the pandemic; a similar situation should not occur in India, added the veteran actor. The statement violated Twitter’s rules on misinformation.

Abusing Rajini fans censured

Meanwhile, prominent members of political parties aside, even neutral people were abused by Rajini fans for criticizing the actor for spreading misinformation about coronavirus.

A doctor himself, DMK MP from Dharmapuri, Senthilkumar who posted various scientific reports about the virulence of the virus to debunk Rajini’s tweet about the 14-hour life span of the virus, followed up with a tweet reading, “Truth, science, logical thinking and rationalism always wins.” Indeed, he did not avoid being sarcastic as usual even while posting informed tweets.

Taking a dig at supporters of the “unscientific video” of “Rajini sir” after Twitter deemed the actor’s post a violation, Senthil, in a loaded posted, said the actor must be complaining about losing his fame in four hours for mouthing concern about the virus. He also responded to unquotable abuses of some of Rajini’s fans by adding that he would not be cowed down by the vile threats and abuses.

A popular meteorology enthusiast who was also a casualty of social media abuse over the issue vented his frustration at being abused for calling a wrong a wrong. He questioned the actor’s fans for raking up his religious origin and even advised the actor to first teach tolerance to his fans.