The homegrown website Koo, which is a desi version of microblogging site Twitter, has become the new tool of conversation as several ministries and union ministers have made their accounts on the Koo App.
The Centre's immediate interest in the Koo app has come after Twitter failed to respond to a government's notice, which was sent last week. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) asked Twitter India to block around 257 tweets and accounts that were tweeting about sake tweets like "farmer genocide". However, the microblogging site has, so far, not responded to the notice.
The MeiTY, on February 4, asked Twitter to remove more than 1,000 accounts flagged by national security agencies as those belonging to Pakistan or Khalistan sympathisers. But Twitter did not respond to it, in fact, Twitter India's policy head Mahima Kaul tendered her resignation last week.
As a result, media reports have surfaced saying that the government is mulling suspending Twitter in India to put pressure on the social media giant to respond to its directives. Also, several union ministers and government organisations have switched to 'made in India' Twitter's version called Koo app.
What is Koo App?
Koo is more like a Twitter, it's a social media app, which was launched in March 2020. Last year in August, this app won Prime Minister's Aatma Nirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge, since then the app has garnered over a million subscribers. In fact, PM Narendra Modi encouraged Indians to use the Koo App in his Mann Ki Baat speech too.
Who has made Koo App?
Koo has been co-founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. The duo has also built startups like TaxiForSure and redBus in their past entrepreneurial avatars.
Koo App features
Currently, Koo App is available in 4 Indian languages--Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. While, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bangla, Oriya, Malayalam, and Assamese will be added soon.
Koo App enables users to write opinions on anything using text, audio, or video. A user either conveys thoughts in 400 characters or a one-minute video. Koo is available for download on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store. Users can download the Koo app on their iPhone and Android devices.
Who has joined Koo app?
According to YourStory, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, MeiTY, Digital India, India Post, NIC, NIELIT, SAMEER, Common Services Center, UMANG app, Digi Locker, NIXI, STPI, CDAC, and CMET among others can be found on Koo App.
Besides, many prominent personalities like Sadhguru, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, among other have also joined Koo.Also several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are also on Koo app now, for example, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal among others.
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