{"id":8290,"date":"2021-06-21T08:26:59","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T07:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=8290"},"modified":"2021-06-29T10:50:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-29T09:50:13","slug":"the-factchecker-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/the-factchecker-12\/","title":{"rendered":"The FactChecker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Koo: What you should know about Twitter\u2019s rival app<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Lami Sadiq<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barely a week after Nigeria\u2019s Government placed an indefinite suspension on the operation of microblogging site, Twitter, the federal government made its debut on an Indian-based social media platform, Koo, which was barely known to many in Nigeria. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the announcement of the government\u2019s arrival on the made-in-Indian app by its co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna, the yellow bird app is gaining traction among some Nigerians as they seek another source of keeping abreast with information hitherto filled by Twitter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Announcing the Nigerian government\u2019s arrival, Radhakrishna with the Koo handle (@aprameya) posted an official handle of the Nigerian government with a smiling emoji sign. \u201cThe official handle of the government of Nigeria is now on Koo,\u201d he posted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Screengrab of Koo co-founder, Aprameya Radhakrishna (@aprameya) announcing the Nigerian government\u2019s arrival on the platform<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Koo App? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Koo is a micro-blogging platform which was developed by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka in March 2020 but was floated in May of the same year. The app won the Aatmanirbhar<\/a> App Challenge organized by the Indian government in August 2020. It has a similar interface with Twitter and its rise is hinged on the stormy path Twitter took with government authorities in India and most recently in Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Twitter, Koo can be used to profess views and opinions on various topics as well as allow users to follow other users, conduct polls, share photos, audio and video with a Direct Message (DM) to facilitate chat with each other. It also allows users to place their posts with hashtags and the @ sign also comes before a username, to mention or reply to other users. Koo uses a yellow and white interface and like the blue-bird app, a verified account is given a yellow tick to indicate its authenticity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A check on Google Play Store shows it has been downloaded over 5 million times. Apart from English, the application features some local languages spoken in India such as, Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. However, the co-founder and CEO, Aprameya wrote on the microblogging app that: \u201cKoo is available in Nieria. We\u2019re thinking of enabling the local languages there too. What say?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading here<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact Checks of the week<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n