The suicide of Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput in the midst of the COVID-19 lockdown triggered a media frenzy of prime time coverage that lasted several months and became a political hot button issue. Using data from Twitter, YouTube, and an archive of debunked misinformation stories, we found two important patterns. First, that retweet rates on Twitter clearly suggest that commentators benefited from talking about the case, which got higher engagement than other topics. Second, that politicians, in particular, were instrumental in changing the course of the discourse by referring to the case as 'murder', rather than 'suicide'. In conclusion, we consider the effects of Rajput's outsider status as a small-town implant in the film industry within the broader narrative of systemic injustice, as well as the gendered aspects of mob justice that have taken aim at his former partner in the months since.

中文翻译：

---

谣言剖析：社交媒体与 Sushant Singh Rajput 的自杀

印度演员苏尚特·辛格·拉杰普特 (Sushant Singh Rajput) 在 COVID-19 封锁期间的自杀引发了媒体对黄金时段报道的狂热，持续了几个月，并成为政治热点问题。使用来自 Twitter、YouTube 和已揭穿的错误信息故事档案的数据，我们发现了两个重要的模式。首先，Twitter 上的转发率清楚地表明评论员从谈论此案中受益，其参与度高于其他话题。其次，特别是政治家通过将案件称为“谋杀”而不是“自杀”，在改变话语进程方面发挥了重要作用。总之，我们在更广泛的系统性不公正叙述中考虑了拉杰普特作为电影业小镇植入物的局外人地位的影响，