Twitter played major role in connecting people; nearly 2000% surge in tweets on medical help

The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified Twitter role in keeping people connected and amplifying authoritative information from credible sources.

The platform has seen tweets on seeking or providing medical help increase by 1958 per cent during the pandemic outbreak, the company said on Wednesday.

Tweets on COVID-19 grew manifold from April 1 to May 31 and the service witnessed 100 per cent growth in Covid-19 conversations compared to the previous two months (February 1- March 31).

The conversations can be categorised into four broad categories: medical help, sharing information, raising funds and mental health.

Tweets around seeking or providing medical help increased by 1958 per cent (20 times), there was also a 916 per cent (10 times) rise in people leveraging the platform to find accurate information on the latest developments, best Covid-19 practices, vaccination drives, and other relevant information.

Further, conversations around relief efforts, and fundraising went up by 731 per cent (8 times), while those on mental well-being recorded a 153 per cent (2.5 times) increase during the surge.

While tweets on #IndiaFightsCorona saw a 530 per cent increase, among local and state-related conversations, #DelhiFightsCorona and #MaharashtraFightsCorona saw a significant increase in tweets -- with conversations going up by 1872 per cent and 2377 per cent, respectively. Twitter also introduced several features, including multiple state-specific Event Pages for credible updates from the region.

Twitter introduced a number of features and initiatives in support of the Covid-19 conversation in India. Some of these were a dedicated Covid-19 hub on the explore page, several Twitter events pages that bring together the latest tweets from a number of authoritative and trustworthy government organisations, media and civil society sources in local languages, an SOS page, related topics, Twitter lists of credible accounts to follow, among several others.

The World Health Organization has also engaged with account holders on the service around important issues. Twitter also prioritised the roll-out of Spaces in India, to give people access to more ways of having informative conversations and staying connected.