A small yellow chick is becoming prominent in India due to tensions between Twitter and the Indian government.
Koo, a new microblogging app, is being used by government departments instead of its much larger U.S. rival.
Twitter’s ‘double standards’
The government of India has demanded that Twitter remove certain accounts that they say are fake news.
It accuses Twitter of ‘double standards’ by taking action against those accused of spreading false or misleading information during the siege of the US Capitol building, but not against those who acted similarly during protests on 26 January at the Red Fort in Delhi.
Twitter initially complied, but then revoked its decision and reinstated the suspended accounts.
The list of bills the government wanted to block included journalists, news organizations and opposition politicians.
Meanwhile, supporters of the Indian government, including ruling party politicians, voted with their fingers and used Koo’s new platform to express their opinions. They also shared hashtags calling for Twitter to be banned in India.
What can Koo do?
Koo’s special attraction for Indian microbloggers is that he is currently working in five national languages, as well as English, with plans to launch another 12.
It was launched in March last year and has received an award from the Indian government, which seeks to strive for greater independence.
Koo operates in a very similar way to Twitter and claims to have attracted three million downloads since its launch, a third of which he describes as active users.
Who are Koo’s fans?
Earlier this month, Koo’s parent company, Bombinate Technologies in Bangalore, raised $ 4.1 million (£ 3 million) for the project.
One of his main supporters is Mohandas Pai, known in India as the co-founder of the IT giant Infosys and a major supporter of the Indian government led by BJP.
With the print “made in India”, many users on Twitter pointed out that he also has Chinese support.
Koo CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna says that although it was based in China early on, it was no longer the case.
Is Koo India’s Parler?
While several ministers and BJP supporters are throwing their weight behind the Indian-made app, many have drawn parallels with the US-based social media app, Parler.
Parler positioned himself as a ‘free speech’ platform and quickly became popular with supporters of former US President Donald Trump, as well as conspiracy theory groups such as QAnon, many of whom are disillusioned with Twitter.
The loss of Twitter was Koo’s gain, as several Indian ministers and government departments, as well as a few celebrities, set up accounts.
Many of their fans and followers also followed them to the new app.
Recently, Indian Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said that he now has more than 500,000 followers on the app. His ministry’s account has earned more than 160,000 over the past few days.
“We are humbled and at the same time excited about the adoption and encouragement by so many notable personalities, and recently the entry of the country’s highest government offices into Koo,” he said. Radhakrishna said in a statement.
Last month, a local television station, Republic TV, announced an editorial partnership with Koo.
It claims to be the most chosen channel of India but has been scrutinized for its bias towards the BJP.
Many of the most popular posts on Koo appear on the channel, and popular hashtags are promoted on TV shows.
Some have suggested similarities with the Chinese social messaging app Weibo, due to the close association with the government and its supporters.
Digital activist Nikhil Pahwa says the impression of India’s self-sufficiency is at odds with the trend towards global platforms: “I am concerned that there may be a future in India where no global platforms work.”
Mr. Pahwa is also concerned that the lack of effective content moderation opens the door to extreme views, as on any social media platform there is a large amount of hate speech even under real names and verified IDs.
Koo and Parler are not the only programs that have emerged as competitors of Twitter. Other platforms like Mastodon and Tooter also came up but failed to lift or build a loyal user base.
Mastodon became popular in India in 2019, when a prominent Indian lawyer’s account was suspended by Twitter.
Many Indian liberals migrated there at the time, accusing Twitter of arbitrarily blocking the account without giving an explanation.
But most of those who left eventually returned to Twitter.
“No one could reach Twitter’s scale,” he said. Pahwa, “because it gives us access to news and information from a global user base.”
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