Days after imposing a ban on microblogging website Twitter in the country, the government of Nigeria has joined the Indian made micro-blogging site Koo.
On Thursday, the Federal Government of Nigeria opened its account on Koo and posted several posts on the platform. The account has been made with the account @nigeriagov.
Aprameya Radhakrishna, the CEO and co-founder of the Koo platform, welcomed the Government of Nigeria on the Koo app for making its debut on the platform. He said that the platform wasspreading wings beyond India now. The Koo app is being touted as the replacement for social media giant Twitter in many parts currently.
A very warm welcome to the official handle of the Government of Nigeria on @kooindia! Spreading wings beyond India now. 🙂 @mayankbidawatka pic.twitter.com/9ufSOKI7sd
— Aprameya R (@aprameya) June 10, 2021
Earlier this week, Koo – the Made in India microblogging platform, had announced that their site is now available in Nigeria, and they were keen on adding new local languages for users in the West African nation. There are over 500 native languages spoken in Nigeria, including Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.
In a post on Koo on Saturday, its CEO and co-founder, Aprameya Radhakrishna, had officially confirmed that the platform is now available in Nigeria.
Speaking to the media, Radhakrishnan said, “We are thinking of enabling the local language there as well. He further added that they are considering introducing a local Nigerian language into the Koo app.
He had earlier said, “Nigeria is similar to India in terms of language diversity. It has hundreds of regional languages. Koo has a global outlook and will enable micro-blogging in countries that need it the most. We have built a scalable platform, and while we are still enhancing the product, it’s already available for use in multiple countries today.”
The Koo founder has also said that the platform is available in Mynamar, Nambia, Nepal, Senegal, Rwanda, Philippines, Peru, Paraguay, etc.
Early this year, when the Indian government was in a battle with Twitter over censoring anti-Indian contents, an Indian-developed Koo was launched. The micro-blogging platform, which shares several features is hoping to replace Twitter in many countries, was originally designed specifically for Indians as it offered its services in multiple local languages.
The decision of the Nigerian government to move to Koo came after they had announced an indefinite suspension of Koo’s rival Twitter in the country.
Nigeria indefinitely suspends Twitter
Last week, the Nigerian government announced that it has indefinitely suspended Twitter’s activities. The move came after Twitter had deleted a Tweet by president Muhammadu Buhari warning against secessionist movements.
The social media giant had deleted a tweet by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari claiming that the tweet had threatened secessionist groups in the Biafra region.
“Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War,” Buhari had tweeted, referring to the Biafra Conflict, which killed 1 million people between 1967 and 1970.
“Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand,” the tweet read.
In addition to deleting the tweet for violating its “abusive behavior” policy, Twitter had brazenly suspended President Buhari’s account for 12 hours.
Following the suspension of Buhari’s account, Nigeria Information Minister Lai Mohammed had acted swiftly to indefinitely suspend Twitter’s activities in the country.
