Last week, the Nigerian government banned the most popular microblogging platform in the country. Nigeria banned Twitter after the microblogging site deleted a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari for violating rules. India’s Koo app taking this opportunity as an advantage.
Koo app has expanded in the country and is now available there. On Thursday, Koo co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna announced Government of Nigeria joining the platform. Twitter ban in Nigeria clearly comes as a big advantage for Koo app.
Nigeria government on Koo
Interestingly, Radhakrishna took to Twitter to announce the Nigeria government joining Koo app. In the tweet, Koo founder stated, “a very warm welcome to the official handle of the Government of Nigeria on @kooindia! Spreading wings beyond India now.”
In a recent interaction with the media, Nigeria’s Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammad revealed that Twitter has come forward to hold a senior-level executive meeting to resolve the matter at the earliest.
Talking about lifting the ban on Twitter, the minister said that Twitter must first register as a company in Nigeria. He further told AFP that Twitter must be “licensed by the broadcasting commission and must agree not to allow anyone to use the platform to promote activities that are inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria.”
What is Koo?
Koo was launched in India as an alternative to Twitter a few months ago. Several Indian government officials have joined Koo and use the platform regularly. The Indian government has been urging Twitter users to join homegrown app Koo. The application is available on both Google Play store as well as App store. In India, Koo is downloaded by over 5000000 users on Google Play store.
The Indian government has also been warning Twitter to comply with new IT rules of the country. Other tech giants including Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, among others have complied with the new social laws and guidelines. The microblogging site has requested for some more and agreed to comply with India’s new IT rules in the days to come.
India’s Twitter alternative is leaving no stones unturned to take on the most popular microblogging site. Very recently, after Twitter banned Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, Koo welcomed her on the platform. Ranaut’s Twitter account was suspend as her tweets violated the platform’s guidelines.
