Amidst the on-going dispute between the Indian government and Twitter over banning certain Twitter accounts, an alternative to Twitter, the Koo app came into the limelight. Koo is a “Made in India” micro-blogging app, available on both Android and iOS platforms and has a webpage, which offers the same features as that of Twitter but with an added feature that allows the users to share their views in Indian regional languages. Being upset with Twitter’s denial to accept the government’s demands, union ministers have started gathering on Koo.
Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidwatka co-founded this micro-blogging website back in March 2020. Radhakrishna also founded the online cab booking app TaxiForSure, which was later acquired by Ola cabs. Bombinate Technology, which also handles Vokal(Indian version of Quora), is the parent company of Koo.
Koo app won the Prime Minister’s Atma Nirbhar App Innovation Challenge in August last year, which was launched by the Centre after banning several Chinese apps, which concerns national security. Since then it has gathered over a million subscribers. PM Modi asked Indian citizens to use the Koo app during his Mann Ki Baat speech.
This website allows the users to share their views and opinions using text, audio, or video. The app currently supports multiple Indian regional languages like Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, and Assamese, which allows a huge community of non-English speakers in India to share their views and get heard. Users can also chat with each other using DMs and can also follow other users on the app. Much like Twitter, users can also conduct polls using the Koo app.
The app is available on Google Playstore and Apple Appstore for Android and iOS users respectively.
The app came into the spotlight recently as several union ministers and politicians like Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, former cricketers Anil Kumble and Javagal Srinath started using the app and asked their followers to do the same. Along with ministers, various ministries of the Centre have been spotted on the Koo app and are promoting the Twitter alternative.
The government officials were unhappy with Twitter’s response towards the government’s demands and decided to put their weight behind the homegrown alternative. The Union IT Ministry has also released a warning to Twitter pointing it out to be an intermediary and “obliged to obey the directions of the government” and refusal to do so will lead to penal action under Section 69A(3) of the IT Act in India. This act allows the Indian government to put the senior officials of the firm behind the bars in addition to a penalty if they do not comply with the demands of the government.
This raises a big concern. Indian audience shifting to the Koo app restricts them to interact with international bodies and issues. Presently, the Koo app is behind Twitter because of its limited user base. However, with regular updates and new features like translation on preference, which will allow the users to interact with a larger audience, the app can give tough competition to the American firm.