India made app Koo, an alternative to Twitter, has recorded a massive surge in the number of users owing to a spat between the Centre and Twitter. Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawataka said, “We had two million users with about 1.5 million active users. Now, we have now crossed 3 million-mark.” Co-founder Aprameya Radhakrishna all took to Twitter to highlight the rising popularity of the platform. The tweet read, “Our systems are facing more load than ever. Thank you for placing your trust in us. Our team is working on overdrive to fix it.”
Twitter is facing a tough time from the Centre as it has openly expressed its displeasure with the microblogging website on late compliance with its emergency orders to remove the hashtag “farmer genocide” and all related content from its platform. Twitter has decided to withhold some of the accounts flagged by the Indian government for blocking “within India only”, but has not blocked handles of civil society activists, politicians, and media as “it would violate their fundamental right to free expression” guaranteed under the country’s law.
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Popularity of Koo
In 2020, Koo won second place in the AatmaNirbhar App Innovation Challenge held by the Government of India. It has also been named Google PlayStore’s Best Daily Essential App for 2020, and even got a special mention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann Ki Baat address.
The aim of the microblogging website is to provide a social media platform in Indian languages. Since a large number of the Indian population does not speak English, Koo is trying to make the voice of these Indians heard. Users from across the country can now participate on the internet in their mother tongue by listening to the views of some of the sharpest Indian minds and also speak their minds by sharing their thoughts.
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India made app Koo has noted the presence of key ministers including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal, and former cricketers Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble, among others. Also, the Union IT Ministry, India Post, and the Niti Aayog are among a few government departments to have opened an account on the app.
How India Made Koo App Works?
All the Koo users can share posts, audio, video, and photos on the platform. Similar to Twitter, Koo users can use hashtags, and can even tag others by using the @ symbol. Users can also chat with others over DMs. The character limit for a Koo is more than Twitter’s, and is set at 400.
India made app Koo is available for download on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
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