The Indian government has expressed outrage over social media giant Twitter.
Twitter revived accounts that were carrying false information about the ongoing farmers’ protest.
The government issued notices to Twitter on the matter. Warned that action would be taken if government orders were not followed.
Meanwhile, the Union IT and Electronics Ministry said on Monday that some people were spreading false propaganda on social media and making provocative tweets against the government over the ongoing agitation of farmers across the Delhi border against the new agricultural laws
It ordered Twitter to suspend such accounts and delete those tweets immediately. Twitter suspended nearly 100 accounts and deleted 150 tweets as per government orders. These included accounts of Kisan Ek Morcha and BKU.
However, a few hours later, Twitter restored the blocked accounts and tweets. The government took the matter seriously as it came to the center’s attention.
Twitter has unilaterally restored accounts without government permission, making it clear that it is a medium and must follow government directives.
The center clarified in the notices that legal action would be taken in case of violation of their orders.
The government has stated that inciting genocide is not freedom of expression but a threat to peace and security.
It is a known fact that the tractor rally held by farmers in Delhi on Republic Day turned violent. It was followed by a large-scale campaign on social media against the government over the farmers ’agitation
Imposed censorship
Some countries have banned and re-granted Twitter, out of dissatisfaction with Twitter. Some countries have imposed censorship.
France, Israel, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, Tanzania, Turkey, Venezuela, China, Egypt, Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, and Britain have all banned and relaxed the ‘on’ and ‘off’ Twitter. India has not banned it to that extent but has been able to block some accounts by Twitter that are at risk of inciting riots.
Anyway, now governments are also running Twitter accounts just like others.
Before, long-press meetings and arrangements were necessary for people to know what was in the mind of the government.
With the convenience of Twitter, Prime Minister or the President are sitting at home, and are delivering information to the whole country.
Twitter hashtags are a big driving force for public movements.
Twitter has become the first platform for many movements such as Black Live Matter, Me too, Bring Back Our Girls, Ice Bucket Challenge, School Strike 4 Climate, Never Again.
The government tolerates even public movements. It takes anti-government mass movements seriously.
Twitter, however, has nothing to do with these movements. As it is a platform for expression to an extent. If you exceed the expression limit and overrule their policies, the accounts will be blocked. Citizens or politicians.
Twitter is a big online democracy. It is not surprising that governments have come up with the idea of putting themselves on Twitter as a competition when that democracy seems to be being abused.
Now our country has launched ‘Koo’ which is also like an alternative Twitter.
The “Koo” App
Twitter alternative Koo App- The Koo app is becoming popular in India as an alternative to Twitter.
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and other ministers are using the app and are promoting it on Twitter urging their followers to shift to the made-in-India app.
Local developers are developing a new type of app domestically with the call of Atmanirbhar Bharat given by Prime Minister Modi last year. Some of these are gaining popularity as they compete with foreign social network platforms.
The government has already created a new app called Sandesh to compete with WhatsApp. The news is that some officials are testing this.
Recently an app surfaced on the internet as a feud ignited between the Indian government and Twitter over the account suspension millions of people in our country are downloading the new app called ‘Koo’ which is now being said an alternative to Twitter.
This Indian social networking app is also used by many celebrities. Union ministers like Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal have already opened accounts in Koo.
Many users think that it would be better to use such new apps made in our country instead of foreign networks like WhatsApp and Twitter.
What makes Koo special?
Koo was developed in India as an alternative to Twitter. The Indian Micro Blogging website was launched in March 2020.
Created by Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. It has all the features just like Twitter. You can share your views on various topics on this microblogging platform.
In August 2020, Koo won the Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge organized by the Government of India but until recently most people weren’t aware of the platform.
The app is also available in various regional languages of the country.
Koo can write posts in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Oriya, and Assamese. Koo users can share posts, audio, video, photos.
Different types of polls can also be conducted. You can chat through DMs.
How to download?
The Koo app is available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. It can be downloaded for free on iPhone and Android devices. The app has a 4.7star rating on the Google Play Store.
Rated 4.1 on the iOS App Store. With 49,400 reviews and over three million downloads, the Koo app is booming.
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