Spider-Man star Tom Holland was grappling with an angry Twitter storm in India recently. Why? Well, it’s a case of mistaken cyber identity.
A huge cricket stadium has been renamed after Indian PM Narendra Modi. A historian with the Twitter handle @holland_tom tweeted a post mocking Modi over it on Wednesday.
“I’m a huge admirer of the modesty Modi showed in naming the world’s largest cricket stadium after himself,” the tweet said.
The post prompted an angry backlash in India, where people mistook the Twitter account with that of another Tom Holland. He is the 24-year-old British star of the “Spider-Man” series of Marvel movies — whose handle is @TomHolland1996.
Soon the hashtag #BoycottSpiderMan started trending in the country of 1.3 billion people, said AFP.
“This is India’s internal matter. We will teach you a lesson of lifetime. #boycottspiderman,” said one user in response to the historian’s tweet.
“You conspirator, conspiring against global leader (Modi). You just wait, Delhi police is coming for you,” said another.
The actor has been active on Twitter this week. He teases fans with possible titles for the newest film in the series.
Historian Holland later apologized!
The #BoycottSpiderMan hashtag then gained further traction as Twitter users mocked others for their misdirected vitriol.
Historian Holland later apologized, tweeting: “Oh dear — I seem single-handed to have destroyed prospects for the next Spider-Man in India.”
Tongue-in-cheek, he added, “Just for the record, & to save Marvel’s profits in India, I freely acknowledge that Narendra Modi is a man of immense humility and that his naming the world’s largest cricket stadium after himself is in no way quite hilariously immodest.”
The stadium in Ahmedabad in Gujarat state was renamed on Wednesday from Motera to Modi.
The 110,000-seat venue was the pet project of Modi. He was the state’s chief minister before becoming India’s prime minister in 2014.
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