Facing Criticism, Ola Electric Using Twitter Bots To Downplay Grievances, Correct Its Image: Report

A network of such Twitter handles has been tweeting in synchronisation for other companies too.

New Delhi: Seems like Ola Electric is trying to play down the criticism it has been facing over its electric scooters catching fire and other incidents through a presumed coordinated network of Twitter handles or Twitter bots. Ola Electric's scooters catching fire and a recent accident due to "faulty brakes" have affected Ola's image and the company has apparently employed a network of dubious Twitter accounts that have been tweeting in favour of the company and trolling consumers who are posting grievances related to Ola Electric and its e-scooters, the media has reported.

A network of such Twitter handles has been tweeting in synchronisation for other companies too and are likely part of either a freelance network that work for several agencies or a part of digital agency accounts that work to portray a positive image of brands online.

This came to light after an investigation was conducted by Mint and it published a report based on the findings. A network of seemingly coordinated Twitter handles appears to be working to drown out criticism of Ola Electric on social media and build a positive narrative for the brand online, the publication reported.

More than 50 Twitter accounts were used to play down criticism against Ola

The investigative report mentioned that over 50 Twitter handles played down criticism from Balwant Singh, whose son Reetam Singh from Gauhati met with an accident and alleged that the incident took place because of faulty brakes made by Ola. 

"@bhash @OlaElectric I had purchased new Ola S1 Pro. On 26th March 2022 my son had an accident due to fault in regenerative breaking where on speed breaker instead of slowing, the scooter accelerated sending so much torque that he had an accident," Balwant Singh had tweeted from his handle @BALWANT1962.

However, the company blamed the accident on overspeeding. Balwant Singh was trolled by some Twitter accounts that downplayed his complaint and trolled him. It was learnt that most of these Twitter accounts were created last year or after that and several of these handles were even created in March or April this year.

The report highlighted that some of these Twitter accounts were found to be tweeting the same thing or were addressing similar themes as well as using identical hashtags on tweets related Ola Electric and several other Twitter trends.