Cricketer Virat Kohli stunned his fans and followers on social media after his account briefly disappeared from the Internet. The cricket legend, who has a massive following of 274 million followers, left them in a state of confusion after his account was suddenly deactivated.
Users tirelessly tried to look up his page and were served with responses like ‘page isn’t available’ or ‘the link may be broken’ as they clicked on his handle @virat.kohli. However, bringing much relief to fans, his account was up and active hours later on Friday, January 30.
King Kohli disappears from Instagram
Lovingly called ‘King Kohli’ for his effortless feat in cricket, Kohli is currently in his best form, scoring century after century against New Zealand. While his X (formerly Twitter) remained active throughout, his Instagram account briefly went dark, with no immediate or preceding explanation.
Turning to wife and actress Anushka Sharma, fans flocked to her posts and flooded the comments asking about his disappearance from Instagram. In the early hours of the day, fans and followers spammed under Sharma’s posts at nearly 2 AM IST. Paying no heed to the sudden uproar, there was no reaction or acknowledgement from the otherwise private couple. Several fan theories erupted as they suspected Kohli’s need for a voluntary ‘digital detox‘ or purely a ‘technical glitch’.
Despite all fan theories, the only thing that remained concrete was Kohli’s irreplaceable fan-following. From calling it a deliberate walk off the Internet, others compared the temporary panic to the ‘nihilistic lonely penguin’ trend. What started as a story from the North Pole quickly became a social media trend as one penguin walked towards danger, alone, without his mate, who had died in a calamity.
Kohli is also the most followed Asian individual on the social media platform. His sudden disappearance, even for a short period in the early hours of the day, showed his cultural impact on society, and his social media presence has remained one true factor for measuring one’s proof of living.
