  A tweet from popular entertainer and businesswoman, Rihanna, bringing
attention to farmers' protests around Delhi set off heightened activity on
Indian social media. An immediate consequence was the weighing in by Indian
politicians, entertainers, media and other influencers on the issue. In this
paper, we use data from Twitter and an archive of debunked misinformation
stories to understand some of the patterns around influencer engagement with a
political issue. We found that more followed influencers were less likely to
come out in support of the tweet. We also find that the later engagement of
major influencers on the side of the government's position shows suggestion's
of collusion. Irrespective of their position on the issue, influencers who
engaged saw a significant rise in their following after their tweets. While a
number of tweets thanked Rihanna for raising awareness on the issue, she was
systematically trolled on the grounds of her gender, race, nationality and
religion. Finally, we observed how misinformation existing prior to the tweet
set up the grounds for alternative narratives that emerged.
