June 10, (THEWILL)- The Nigerian government has officially joined Indian Twitter-alternative, Koo.
The Government of Nigeria created its official account on 10th June 2021.
In a tweet announcing the Nigerian government’s arrival, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Koo, Aprameya Radhakrishna, wrote: “A very warm welcome to the official handle of the Government of Nigeria on @kooindia! Spreading wings beyond India now.”
THEWILL reports that the government blocked access to Twitter on 5 June, after the microblogging platform had deleted a tweet from President Muhammadu Buhari threatening to punish regional secessionists in the country.
The Federal Government thereafer, suspended Twitter, alleging that it is undermining the National security interest of the country.
Nigerians had circumvented the ban through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) but the Federal Government threatened to prosecute violators of the ban.
The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) also ordered television and radio stations to go off Twitter.
There had been complaints about dissemination of information as a result of the Twitter ban.
Probably as a means of making up for the ban, the Nigerian government enlisted on the Koo platform.
The Nigerian government’s verified account on Koo, with the name ‘Government of Nigeria’ @nigeriagov, has 6,570 followers as of the time of filing this report.
Koo co-founder and CEO, Aprameya Radhakrishna, shared a post on his account @aprameya, about Nigerian government’s presence on Koo.
He also added that the Indian microblogging and social networking service is working to enable local Nigerian languages on its app.
“Koo is available in Nigeria. We’re thinking of enabling the local languages there too. What say?” he said
He also shared a screenshot of the languages spoken in Nigeria.
The Koo platform has been trying to take advantage of Twitter’s clashes with the Indian government too.
Various ministers and ministries have already joined Koo in India, and the company gained many users after the recent altercations between Twitter and the Indian government.
Launched just last year, the platform has over 6 million users in India already.
Koo was also amongst the first to announce compliance with the Indian government’s IT Rules, which requires platforms to be able to track first originators of posts, tweets and messages.
About the Author
