With the Centre and Twitter continuing their tussle, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Friday joined India's own micro-blogging platform 'Koo', joining several Ministers who have already created their accounts on it. While Railways and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal was the first Minister from the Modi cabinet to join the Koo App, Electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who too joined the platform a few days ago, on Friday thanked his followers as his follower count on the new app reached 5 lakh.
Making the announcement through his Twitter handle, Javadekar said, “I am now on #Koo also, the #MakeInIndia micro-blogging platform. Follow me @prakashjavadekar on #KooApp.” The application was launched 10 months ago but in the last few weeks it saw a massive surge in user base as Union ministers and government departments have endorsed the homegrown microblogging platform amid a spat with Twitter.
“Great to have 5 Lakh followers on Koo- an Indian microblogging platform. Thank you everyone for your love and support #VocalForLocal,” the IT minister tweeted.
The information technology ministry used Koo to broadcast its stand on Twitter's non-compliance with its order to take down allegedly inflammatory content by some farmer protesters, while ministers urged people to switch platforms. These developments have led to a surge in the user base of the Indian rival.
Koo, which has startling similarities with Twitter, now has over three million users, Koo co-founder Mayank Bidawataka had told media on Thursday. Even another partner Aprameya Radhakrishnan appeared in public broadcaster Doordarshan to explain the specialties of their product.
Koo has a yellow bird as its logo in contrast to the blue bird of Twitter.”We had two million users with about 1.5 million active users. Now, we have now crossed the 3 million-mark,” said Bidawataka. Twitter has 17.5 million users and is ardently used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet ministers to communicate with the public.