PM Narendra Modi's '9pm9minute' tweet among top trends on Twitter in 2020

As 2020 draws to a close, the time has come to see how people across the world spent their year on social media. Twitter has formally released India's annual report titled #ThisHappened2020.

According to Twitter India's annual report, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the only Asian to feature in the top 10 list of the 'people most tweeted about' in 2020. The tweet by PM Modi about lighting lamps of hope and good health during the Covid-19 pandemic was the 'Most Retweeted Tweet in Politics' on Twitter. In his address to the nation, Modi urged the citizens to switch off all lights for nine minutes at 9 pm and light up lamps or torch or cellphone flashlights on April 5.

The report looks back at the most liked and retweeted Tweets, the most popular trends, and how 2020 unfolded across the world on Twitter. While most of us remained indoors during the Covid-19 pandemic, our consumption of literature, movies, sports and shows grew exponentially, and people took to Twitter stay connected, informed, and entertained while talking about their expereinces, passions, re-discovering interests and having deep conversations. Netizens had an array of issues and topics to discuss ranging from Covid-19 pandemic, economic slowdown, lockdown impact, social justice movements, and the elections.

#Covid19, #BlackLivesMatter and #StayHome were the most-used hashtags throughout the year. People used these hashtags to seek reliable information, connect with healthcare experts and agencies, and follow what was happening in real-time. Covid-19 dominated the 2020, but social justice movements too undeniably played a crucial role in shaping the world. 

Over 700 million Tweets were sent in 2020 about elections around the world and Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Narendra Modi and Kamala Harris were among the most Tweeted-about global leaders. Kamala Harris’ ‘We did it Joe’ video after the Democratic candidate won the US elections was liked 3.4 million times on Twitter.

"Being the year it has been, conversation on Twitter in 2020 was unique. From the fight against this global pandemic, rejoicing in celebratory moments, standing up for those communities impacted by the pandemic to bonding over rediscovered shows, interests and memes, India came together beautifully on Twitter this year," said Manish Maheshwari, Managing Director, Twitter India.

This year also brought a sense of gratitude for the frontline workers on the micro-blogging platform, said Maheshwari. 

Let's see how people discussed everything on the microblogging social networking site from the pandemic to the 'Black Lives Matter' protests.

In business, the most retweeted tweet was from Ratan Tata who pledged support to communities affected by Covid-19. The top industrialist announced a commitment of Rs 500 crore on behalf of the company towards protecting and empowering communities affected by the pandemic. The initiative was widely appreciated and served as a reminder to every Indian to stay united in the fight against Covid-19.

The tweet about "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman's death was one of the most talked about moments on Twitter in 2020. The August 28 post by Boseman's family, sharing the news of his death after his secret battle with coloncancer, received the most "likes" - more than 7.5 million - on Twitter. The post was also retweeted and quote tweeted the most during the year.

Black Lives Matter movement, a political and social movement in protest against incidents of police brutality against black people that shook the United States in May 2020 took the second position and #StayHome which is against related to the coronavirus pandemic took the third position.

#BlackLivesMatter, a movement initiated against racism after African-American George Floyd was killed by an on-duty white police officer in the United States in May, was the second-most tweeted hashtag. 

In the entertainment field, "Dil Bechara", starring late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, was the most tweeted about Hindi movie for the year as his distraught fans vowed to make the late actor's final movie a memorable one. In the list, the film was followed by Deepika Padukone's acid attack survivor drama "Chhapaak", Ajay Devgn-starrer period hit "Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior", Taapsee Pannu's "Thappad" and Netflix movie "Gunjan Saxena".

South star Vijay's selfie with fans posted in February was the most retweeted tweet of 2020, while megastar Amitabh Bachchan's post about his Covid-19 diagnosis was the most liked and quote tweeted moment in the year.
The most popular web series list was topped by Amazon Prime Video's "Mirzapur 2", starring Pankaj Tripathi and Ali Fazal, which finally debuted in September after a wait of two years. Netflix's smash-hit series "Money Heist" was the most talked-about international web series.

This Twitter list has been compiled on the basis of tweets, quote retweets, likes and retweets from the users from the beginning of the year till November 15.