What’s #EmptyTwitterTrash and why did it trend?

Ever faced hate, abuse or slander on Twitter? Well, as is usual with the platform, the call for action came via a hashtag, that was trended to prevent such content and keep Twitter clean and free of lies. 

The Hashtag #EmptyTwitterTrash trended on Twitter from late Saturday until Sunday evening, with over 62K tweets put out by individual accounts and those of social media influencers, celebrities and famous personalities from across domains. This trend was started by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev’s Isha Foundation. 

“Twitter has become an important public forum in our society and vital to out democracies. It's important keep it clean of abuse, slander and vitriol. “EmptyTwitterTrash @TwitterIndia” read the tweet from Isha Foundation. 

The tweet was in context of land grab charges that the Foundation has been facing for years, despite putting out all documents and records in public space. According to the foundation, they have shared answers to all charges - from land grab, encroachment of forests, illegal constructions at the ashram or being present in an elephant corridor, in a publicly available document called “slander sans substance” that was released two years ago.

The foundation maintains that “a band of motivated or misinformed people, continue to throw muck at their globally-recognised non-profit organisation, that's been working towards people's well-being and spiritual growth for decades”.

Many were quick to retweet or share their own experience of how they faced similar experience on Twitter and why users must be held accountable for the abusive content they post. 

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon, former Infosys Director Mohandas Pai, French Journalist Francois Gautier were among those who had retweeted about this cause.