IT Ministry gave message to Twitter via indigenous app Koo

he conflict between Twitter and Modi government is increasing. Twitter is not taking appropriate steps despite repeated notices to protest and encourage anti-country activities. Angered by this, the Modi government has started preparing for action against Twitter. Using the Twitter’s indigenous alternative ‘Koo’ app, the Modi government termed the blog post update of Twitter as “unusual”. The IT ministry posted a message on the ‘Koo’ app instead of Twitter, stating that Twitter is seeking formal talks with the Minister of Information Technology.

Twitter said on Wednesday that it has banned some accounts under the government of India’s direction to close some accounts “only in India”. However, the Twitter handle of civil society activists, politicians and media has not been blocked because doing so would violate the basic right to freedom of expression. Twitter also stated in the blogpost that it has taken steps to make harmful content less visible, including preventing hashtags from trending and not recommending them when searching.

The Modi government had issued notices to Twitter to block 1,178 accounts, suspected to be linked to Khalistani or supported by Pakistan. Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had last week asked Twitter to block 257 accounts that were using the hashtag ‘Modi’s farmer massacre plan’ and posted fake, intimidating and provocative tweets amid the farmers’ agitation. Were staying. However, Twitter did not respond to the government notice.

Significantly, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and several other government organizations have found an indigenous alternative to Twitter and have switched to the ‘Koo’ app built indigenously. These organizations now have official accounts on the ‘Koo’ app. The accounts of government ministries include the Ministry of Electronics and IT, MyGov, Digital India, India Post and NIC.

Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has been a part of the microblogging platform built in India since August last year. There are more than 4.29 lakh followers on Ravi Shankar Prasad’s ‘Ku’ app. Apart from this, shipping minister Mansukh Mandavia is also on the indigenous ‘Ku’ app. He has a large number of followers on the homegrown microblogging website. He is followed by more than 2.34 lakh people on ‘Ku’. The ‘Koo’ app was also among the winners of the self-sustaining app innovation challenge organized by the central government in August 2020.