Americans often tend to forget that beyond our shores exist an entire world, populated by billions of people who know a lot more about us than we do about them. Megyn Kelly was reminded of this fact on Thursday, after asking the third most followed world leader if he has a Twitter account.
Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News host who returned to primetime television this weekend with NBC News, was in St. Petersburg last week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi before Russia's International Economic Forum.
During her handshake with the Indian leader, Modi remarked that he had seen one of Megyn Kelly's tweets about the weather in St. Petersburg. Kelly, perhaps not realizing that one of the world's most populated countries has access to social media, replied, "Are you on Twitter?"
Prime Minister Modi, who has over 30 million Twitter followers, simply replied, "Yes."
Megyn Kelly, in comparison, has slightly more than 2.3 million Twitter followers-- a fact that was not lost on Modi's fans. While Modi and Kelly moved on to other topics of conversation, Modi's 30 million Twitter followers-- understandably slighted by the remark-- weren't about to let the NBC host off the hook for her gaffe, asking what India has to do to get a little international recognition and respect.
Megyn Kelly trolled on Twitter over Modi remark
Rahul Kanwal, an Indian journalist, bashed Kelly for not doing her homework on Narendra Modi. "Heard of basic research?" he tweeted to the newest addition to the NBC News team.
Despite the hype @megynkelly comes across as terribly unprepared asking @narendramodi if he's on @Twitter Heard of basic research? @NBCNews https://t.co/BlVnzlgBH0
— Rahul Kanwal (@rahulkanwal) June 2, 2017
Dozens of others pointed out that Narendra Modi is not only on Twitter, but is presently the third most followed world leader, according to the social media company's annual "Twiplomacy" report.
Alyssa Ayres, of the Council on Foreign Relations, echoed the sentiments of many Indians by asking, "Sheesh. What does it take to get India on the radar screen?"
.@NBCNews @megynkelly asks @narendramodi ,the 3rd Most Followed World Leader on @Twitter ,"Are you on #Twitter ?". She hasn't done homework! pic.twitter.com/6KTVj3yY2G
— Swamiji (@AOLSwamiji) June 1, 2017
Sheesh. @megynkelly asks @narendramodi WHO HAS 30 MILLION FOLLOWERS if he's on Twitter. What does it take to get India on the radar screen? https://t.co/ggw3p1YzlV
— Alyssa Ayres (@AyresAlyssa) June 2, 2017
Kelly failed to do her homework
While Megyn Kelly's offhand remark wasn't intended to be disrespectful, it does appear that she is guilty of not doing her homework as a journalist, since Modi has been a highly influential public figure on social media for years.
In 2014, long before Donald Trump threw his hat in the ring, the New York Times hailed Modi as "a juggernaut of political social media" who packed arenas and stadiums all around the world-- including Madison Square Garden in New York, where he spoke before a sellout crowd.
Even back then Narendra Modi was one of the world's most visible leaders online. At the time of his visit to Madison Square Garden in 2014, the only world leader who had more Facebook fans was Barack Obama, and on Twitter, he was surpassed in total followers only by Obama, Pope Francis, and the Dalai Lama. He only had 6.62 million Twitter followers back then-- 23 million more have followed him since.
