India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted Monday evening (local time) that he was thinking about giving up on his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube accounts.
Modi, whose 53 million followers on Twitter make him one of the most popular figures on the microblogging social network, did not offer any rationale for his thinking. On his Facebook page, he has more than 44 million followers; on Instagram, 35.2 million; and 4.5 million on Google’s video platform.
Why this sudden decision of quitting social media?
The closure of the accounts, which Modi says he might do over the weekend, may further distance the leader from wide swathes of issues — growing unemployment in the nation, slowing economy, riots in national capital New Delhi and protests against his recent policies, to name a few — that some critics say his ruling party refuses to acknowledge, let alone fix.
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