What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
Several Indian politicians and institutions are lining up to join the multilingual micro-blogging site KOO.
A few days back, on November 4, Enforcement Directorate (ED) tweeted “now ED is also available on Koo”.
Not just ED, in recent years many organisations like the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and Several government departments, like the Ministry of Electronics, Ministry of Railways, India Post, MyGovIndia, Digital India and NITI Aayog, too, are on Koo.
The major thrust for individuals joining Koo came after Twitter announced monthly charges for verified accounts.
The shift to Koo is mostly due to Indian government’s increasing mistrust of Twitter. Indian government continues to battle Twitter over its demand for the suspension of accounts that it claims spread misinformation about the farmers’ protest.
Government Officials and Ministries have set up accounts on Koo, an Indian microblogging platform. It functions similarly to Twitter, but Koo allows users to write in a variety of Indian languages.
Koo microblogging website completed 50 million downloads on November 16 which is a huge success for the AAP, in February the reported numbers of downloads were 3 million. Koo App, India’s own social media platform, has now become the second largest microblogging platform across the world – behind only Elon Musk-owned Twitter.
Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawatka said, “Given the changes happening in the micro-blogging landscape globally, we are looking to expand our wings to geographies where fundamental rights are being charged for.”
He said that he believes a fundamental tool on the Internet, such as Koo should not come at a cost, a reference to Twitter rolling out a paid subscription service.
Talking about identity security on Koo, Bidawatka said that proving your identity is a fundamental right.
On verification of Koo profiles, he said, “Koo has always provided a free yellow eminence tick to eminent personalities and a simple self-verification tool to every citizen and will continue to do so.”
In February after Twitter refused to ban the accounts requested by the government, several ministers rushed to the Indian alternative. Popular politicians who have joined the platform include commerce minister Piyush Goyal, law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, environment minister Prakash Javadekar, Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, member of parliament Tejasvi Surya, and BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya.
