The USA’s disparate influence on global culture is so strong, yet we don’t say the popularity metrics are distorted for American content. Odd phrasing IMHO
Though, you may be surprised to learn that in general, western media and western commentators are pretty negative on India. See, for example, [1]. Whenever some positive news about India comes out, people come out of the woodwork with statements like "do people still shit on the streets?" "India is the rape capital of the world" "India should feed its people first", etc. etc.
Hence you can't really blame Indians for getting excited about a positive news story.
Indians are also insensitive to critics and get outraged very quickly.
I'm french and if I read any comments section of any english article about France, I'll find tons of negative comments like "cheese eating surrender monkey", "their tanks have 1 forward and 7 reverse gear" and so on.
And I only speak about the comments section, the worse are article from Murdoch's empire which plainly insult us, generating tons of money along the way because it sells well.
This type of comments is also found on indian based website, and that is super strange because India and France have not been involved together, we do not share a common history which would allow the introduction of jokes making fun of one another.
> Indians are also insensitive to critics and get outraged very quickly.
Can you blame them? It's been barely 74 years since they got independence, and yet they have managed to achieve so much: satellite launches, mission to moon, Mars, stable democracy, well-run elections, booming tech sector, nukes, etc. And they still have to deal with Western media portraying them as a shitty country.
Well France was one of the traditional colonizers and, although more cooperative historically with India, was often the opponent of the sides supported by India diplomatically (Vietnam, Africa, etc).
Also France does not have a history of traditionally winning in India (Carnatic Wars). That, coupled with the base level knowledge of WW2 that Indians are taught at school, means that Indians often take the stereotypical view online.