Mumbai: Bollywood actoress Swara Bhaskar on Wednesday tweeted tagging Zomato and its CEO Deepinder Goyal asking whether the company supports a "hate espousing'' channel like Republic TV, reminding them that being a regular customer she isn't willing to fund them indirectly and asking them to stop advertising on such news channels.
Zomato was one of the advertising partners on Republic TV news channel. The food delivery brand responded quickly to Swara's tweet, causing #BoycottZomato to trending.
Folks who are concerned in promoting the channel like Republic have supported Swara's tweet. And those who hang on #boycotzomato, have shared pictures of uninstalling Zomato app, cancelling their Zomato Gold memberships and leaving low ratings with poor reviews as a part of protest.
Hey @zomatoin @zomato @deepigoyal I'm your regular customer.. do u plan to #DefundTheHate & pull your ads from hate espousing channels like @Republic_Bharat ? I'm not okay with my money even indirectly funding this kind of communal bigoted hate! Pls let your consumers know.. https://t.co/mMacP8IawZ
— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) November 18, 2020
Brands like Bajaj Auto and Parle had blacklisted certain news channels earlier pointing their unwillingness to be associated with platforms that are "a source of toxicity in the society" that peddle lies, conspiracy theories and effectively work as propaganda channels of the ruling party.
Swara tweeted : Hey , I'm your regular customer. Do you plan to #DefundTheHate & pull your ads from hate espousing channels like Republic Bharat. I'm not okay with my money even indirectly funding this kind of communal bigoted hate! Pls let your consumers know.
Zomato commented on the post with, "Hi Swara, please note, we don't endorse any content except our own. That being said, we are looking into this," which lead to a massive response targeting boycott of Zomato.
Zomato have not responded to the massive attack yet.