# Database of Indian Social Media Influencers on Twitter

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.09193 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09193/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [The Uli Dataset: An Exercise in Experience Led Annotation of oGBV](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.09086/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Databases of highly networked individuals have been indispensable in studying narratives and influence on social media. To support studies on Twitter in India, we present a systematically categorised database of accounts of influence on Twitter in India, identified and annotated through an iterative process of friends, networks, and self-described profile information, verified manually. We built an initial set of accounts based on the friend network of a seed set of accounts based on real-world renown in various fields, and then snowballed "friends of friends" multiple times, and rank ordered individuals based on the number of in-group connections, and overall followers. We then manually classified identified accounts under the categories of entertainment, sports, business, government, institutions, journalism, civil society accounts that have independent standing outside of social media, as well as a category of "digital first" referring to accounts that derive their primary influence from online activity. Overall, we annotated 11580 unique accounts across all categories. The database is useful studying various questions related to the role of influencers in polarisation, misinformation, extreme speech, political discourse etc.