After the Twitter storm which blew through the Indian cyberspace in the aftermath of International celebrities supporting the farmers’ protests, a new microblogging App, Koo has come in the limelight. It is being hailed by many as the Indian answer to Twitter. Aprameya Radhakrishna, one of the co-founders recently stated (on Twitter) that the new App is facing a huge load, and the team is working overdrive to fix it. The new App has more than 3 million users now, and the co-founder thanked the people for placing trust on it.
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It has been observed that most of the new users in Koo are supporters of the GOI in the context of the farmers’ protests. It has become a destination of exodus for many such supporters. The App allows people to connect through many Indian languages. Another peculiar aspect is that Republic TV is shown as the top must to-be followed profile on the App.
The App has benefited from the censure on Twitter by GOI in the aftermath of refusal of request from GOI to take down more than 1100 accounts which were blamed of spreading disinformation about the farm laws. Political leaders like Piyush Goyal and CM of MP, Shivraj Singh Chouhan have joined in Koo, along with celebrities like Kangana Ranaut, who are vocal supporters of the policies of GOI.
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As reported by PTI, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), MyGov, Digital India, India Post, National Informatics Centre (NIC), National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), Common Services Centre, UMANG app, Digi Locker, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) et al have all opened accounts on Koo.
Many observers underscored that Koo would be a platform for echo-chamber-ing for the new users. French security researcher Robert Baptiste, who goes by the pseudonym Elliot Alderson accused Koo of exposing its users’ personal data. Baptiste had stated that the microblogging platform Koo was exposing sensitive information of its users, such as email addresses, date of birth, marital status, names, gender, and more, which has been denied by the CEO of the App.