We’re a little worried about Indian legacy media and their ‘digital strategy’. Because for now it seems the focus is to take clickbait and online aggregation to newer, lower depths. A few days ago, it was The Times of India and today it is India Today.

This is the headline TOI went with for a story on a woman who was allegedly raped before her marriage and got pregnant.It’s clearly designed to mislead and get people to click.

Despite the minor quibble that the report seems to have undergone no editing whatsoever – and it is a minor quibble when it comes to TOI’s web desk – there is a story here. A woman survived rape and repeated threats, and a case being registered against the accused. But why report sensibly when you can sensationalise?

India Today, on the other hand, decided social media aggregation is an excuse to give space to vile, defamatory tweets. The format isn’t new – collect a bunch of tweets on a trending topic and make a ‘news’ article out of it. It’s not like there aren’t smart ways of doing this, but it would rarely involve collating tweets that are downright crass.

The article is based on a so-called Twitter furore after Donald Trump embraced his daughter Ivanka at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump has in the past made some crude jokes about his daughter and has been skewered for it. So while it’s totally legit to say his behaviour with Ivanka creeps out people, it doesn’t merit accusations of rape.

But that is precisely the sort of Twitter tippani that the India Today team carefully curated to post a piece, which was initially headlined, “Donald Trump can’t seem to keep his hands off his hot daughter Ivanka” (mercifully, they’ve changed it since).

Just when we were about to upload this short, India Today did this: When Twitter discovered fast bowling prospects among Kashmir’s stone throwers.

Here’s a hashtag to go with TOI and India Today trying digital: #TotalFail