By Jilawatan

With her twitter account, that is. In an Emirates 24|7 exclusive the actress explains why celebs tweet no more Kareena Kapoor says she prefers limited interaction with her fans through her website rather than social media avenues such as Twitter. (SUPPLIED)
In less than a week, Bollywood’s Imran Khan and Indian author Chetan Bhagat have both quit microblogging site Twitter, while Kareena Kapoor tells Emirates 24|7 that she has no plans to ever return to her account that she had once set up.

The sudden emergence of an anti Twitter movement, what with Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan also quitting on their accounts due to respective hate mail and jail stints, is giving rise to speculation that Twitterphobia is spreading faster than bushfire amongst celebrities.

Khan, who was introduced to the social networking site by friend and producer/director Karan Johar in a bid to promote their film I Hate Luv Storys, has deleted his @1mranKhan account, citing too much maintenance and very little time to do so.

Meanwhile, Bhagat, who has penned bestsellers Five Point Someone and One Night At a Call Centre, has decided a six-month hiatus is the call of the hour to concentrate on his new book.

The author wrote on his blog yesterday: “…Twitter has to stop. It’s hard giving up fun things, and I am going to miss interacting with my readers.

However, I am not giving it up forever, just going to be away from it for a while – maybe six months or so, or, until Feb 2011.

My account is still there, but I won’t be tweeting much. I will however, tweet my column links for convenience, as and when they appear.”

Social outcasts?

“It’s not about being social outcasts or being against the concept itself,” Kapoor told the website, “It is about not having the time to maintain it and realising that it simply isn’t going to work for me. I’m all for it for those whom it works for.”

The actress added: “I have a website that I recently launched, Kareenakapoor.com, and this is how I plan to stay in touch with my fans, with limited interaction.”

Kapoor’s real-life beau, fellow actor Saif Ali Khan, is of same thought, who was recently quoted in the media as saying: “Personally, I won’t be on Twitter because I don’t feel the need.

I don’t want to share my thoughts. I don’t know what I will say. And I feel that some distance should be maintained between the audiences and the actor. That’s my personal opinion.”

Troubling tweets

Miley Cyrus’, who was victimised by hate messages on her Twitter account, isn’t the only celebrity on the receiving end of such harassment.

Bollywood’s Lara Dutta was dealing with a Twitter stalker who would overload her account with hateful tweets, prompting the actress to take a hiatus from the site saying that such messages were simply unwarranted; albeit, she has returned, but is taking a more cautious approach to her account.

Meanwhile, Neil Nitin Mukesh, who’s film Lafangey Parindey is currently playing in UAE cinemas, found his twitter account hacked into.

The news was confirmed when Indian reel rag Filmfare’s twitter account tweeted informing its followers, “Hey people! @NeilNMukesh’s account has been hacked! Kindly unfollow! We’ll let you know when Neil is back in action on twitter!”

Yet, at one end of the spectrum we have such incidences, at the other celebs such as @ParisHilton and @SrBachchan are still going strong on social media. Maybe these celebs have the stomach to face criticism or they simply don’t care.