A study has shown that Indian celebrities, including actors and cricketers, indulged in collusive tweeting of the Centre’s two hashtags – #IndiaAgainstPropaganda and #IndiaTogether – used in response to the global criticism of the government’s handling of the farmers’ protests.

The study showed that the tweets came in three batches – actors tweeting in the morning, cricketers in the afternoon and mixed group in the evening.

A plot of the key celebrities, who tweeted with the volume of their online following, on one axis and the extent to which their tweets were endorsed.

“In general, sportspersons [were] more likely to lean towards the government position,” Joyojeet Pal, one of the reaserchers, tweeted. “Cricketers [were] almost uniformly on the government side or neutral. Two major sportspersons who came out against [the trend] were [badminton player] Jwala Gutta and [cricketer] Irfan Pathan.”

The study also found evidence of trolling on pop singer Rihanna in response to her tweet. It said that the most common form of trolling was on gender lines, followed by her race/ethnicity and then her nationality.

It said that the trending hashtag showed that Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg was singled out among those who tweeted in support of the farmer protest.

The study said that misinformation for both in support or against the farm laws amplified following the events. “The narratives further turned insidious when the farmers were falsely depicted to be pro-Khalistan members,” the study pointed out. “Various photographs were seen to be photoshopped and recontextualized to depict farmers as anti-India sloganeers.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also targeted for his alleged closeness to industrialists. “He was portrayed in relation to the Adanis and Ambanis, where he is depicted bowing to Priti Adani in seeming obeisance or visiting a grandchild of the Ambani family,” the study showed. “Another set of debunked stories related to Narendra Modi falsely showed the people of the Sikh community disrespecting him.”

The study also showed that the personalities who tweeted in support or against gained followers with the Ministry of External Affairs and former adult model Mia Khalifa gaining the most number of followers.

On Tuesday, a tweet by pop star Rihanna in support of the farmers dominated social media and had led to an outpouring of international condemnation by celebrities and human rights activists alike of the Modi government’s handling of the crisis.

The Ministry of External Affairs labelled the comments “neither accurate nor responsible”. The ministry had warned against the “temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments” but coined two hashtags, which were widely used on social media to back the government.

Actors, celebrities and sports personalities in India began tweeting using the two hashtags, urging unity and denouncing outsider voices as trying to divide the country.