It started with a photo of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi lounging on a white-sand beach while gazing into the sea and quickly descended into a full-blown diplomatic spat between India and the Maldives, a small island county in the Indian Ocean.
#BoycottMaldives spent days trending on X, formerly known as Twitter. Three Maldivian ministers were suspended for their viral comments calling Modi a “clown” and a “terrorist” on social media, as the country grappled with the fallout and potential threat to its vital tourism industry.
The promotional message that started it all hit Modi’s social media feed in the first week of January —
