NBC’s Megyn Kelly got trolled by Twitter users after she asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi if he is on Twitter.
Kelly was meeting with Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday in St. Petersburg before Russia’s International Economic Forum when she asked Modi, who has a Twitter account with 30 million followers, if he had an account on the social media platform, the Washington Post reported.
“I saw your tweet with the umbrella!” Modi said, referencing Kelly’s tweet that day saying that it stopped raining in St. Petersburg.
“Oh yes!” Kelly responded, apparently caught a little off guard.
“Are you on Twitter?” Kelly asked the prime minister.
“Yes,” Modi replied.
Kelly’s question did not go unnoticed by Modi’s 30 million plus Twitter followers and others on social media, who mocked the journalist for her apparent ignorance about Modi’s social media presence.
“Despite the hype @megynkelly comes across as terribly unprepared asking @narendramodi if he’s on @Twitter Heard of basic research?” one Indian journalist remarked.
“She hasn’t done homework!” another user responded.
“What does it take to get India on the radar screen?” wrote Alyssa Ayres of the Council on Foreign Relations.
According to Twiplomacy’s annual report on the social media usage of world leaders, Modi was the third most-followed on Twitter in 2016 and ranked seventh on the list of most influential world leaders.
Kelly, on the other hand, has a modest 2.3 million Twitter followers mostly based in the U.S.
Modi had used social media to connect with his constituents long before other leaders like President Trump jumped on the bandwagon.
The New York Times called him “the social media politician” and TIME Magazine mentioned that Modi used “Twitter to bypass traditional media and speak directly to masses feeling left out or pushed behind by globalization.”