The total number is debatable since one needs to prove that the deaths do have a direct linkage with communism. Majority of the deaths have had taken place during the Great Leap Forward, to which I whole-heartedly agree to. But then again, the tally in no way comes close to 100M. https://twitter.com/NGangakhedkr/status/1315976903891722243

Stéphane Courtois, the man who came up with the figure "100 million deaths" had mentioned it in the preface of Black Book of Communism. He ended up not justifying the same.

It so happened that Jean-Louis Margolin, Nicolas Werth and Karel Bartosek (the other contributors of Black Book of Communism) were compelled to distance themselves from the statement made.