Koo: What you should know about Twitter’s rival app
By Lami Sadiq
Barely a week after Nigeria’s 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.
With the announcement of the government’s 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.
Announcing the Nigerian government’s arrival, Radhakrishna with the Koo handle (@aprameya) posted an official handle of the Nigerian government with a smiling emoji sign. “The official handle of the government of Nigeria is now on Koo,” he posted.
Screengrab of Koo co-founder, Aprameya Radhakrishna (@aprameya) announcing the Nigerian government’s arrival on the platform
What is Koo App?
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 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.
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.
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: “Koo is available in Nieria. We’re thinking of enabling the local languages there too. What say?
Fact Checks of the week
Social Media platforms with special reference to WhatsApp have seen the vigorous circulation of a claim that the American Visa lottery registration process for 2021 is ongoing. The caption claiming that the registration process is now open comes along with captivating and…
A recent headline reads, “JUST IN: Buhari shot dead by gunmen in Edo”. It was first shared on PM NEWS and reappeared on ther platforms carrying the same headline. As expected, the headline drew serious attention from the public who thought…
On Wednesday, June 10, 2021, the internet went agog with photos and news reports of president, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) receiving the first made in Nigeria phone known as ITF mobile. But, how true is this?
Tip Of The Week
#FakeNewsAlert
There’s precious little that we can do about the barrage of misinformation that we see daily, but there’s a lot we can do together if we learn to identify suspicious claims in the news and refrain from fuelling the fire by spreading them! Here are our top picks of likely-to-be-false news which [sadly] couldn’t be fact-checked.
CLAIM: A viral WhatsApp message claims that the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) has advised users of public transports to beware of drivers mentioning Lace and Ankara during a phone call. The viral message purports that kidnappers have adopted the words ‘Lace and Ankara’ and translated them to mean ‘Male and Female’ respectively, hence, when a driver mentions any of these words, passengers should ‘quietly alight immediately.’ It further advises readers to pass the information on to others.
SOURCE: WhatsApp Message
Questions to ask yourself: Who is the source? Which credible news platform has published this? Did LASTMA actually initiate the message?
What you should do: Verify before sharing.
Other Fact Checks
- 2018 video circulated to sell narrative two survived plane crash that killed Nigeria’s Army Chief
- How true is claim Twitter changed retweet button to green in solidarity with #June12thProtest?
- Viral image depicting police officer shooting at protesters fact-checked
- General Faruk Yahaya is 22nd COAS, not 26th as widely reported in media
- No school children kidnapped in Ondo bus hijack as claimed by Shehu Sani
- The FactChecker
- Fact-checking Senator Brown’s claim that no President has moved into Liberia’s Executive Mansion since the killing of President William R. Tolbert
- EndSARS photo used to paint narrative Kenyans protest in solidarity with Nigerians
- Twitter did not ban Buhari as claimed in Trump’s viral statement
- Is ITF mobile the first made-in-Nigeria phone?
- The Viral American Visa Lottery Registration Form Is A Scam, DV Lottery Form Is Currently Closed
- Spotlighting Femi Fani-Kayode, Nigeria’s popular anti-vaccination champion who later took the jab
- Koo: What you should know about Twitter’s rival app
- Misleading headline leads readers to believe President Buhari is dead
- CAC not offering free online registration as claimed in viral message
- Festus Keyamo did not author viral ‘MOTHER OF ALL BOMBS’ Message
- Studies suggest COVID-19 was recorded in the US before being detected in China
- General Faruk Yahaya is 22nd COAS, not 26th as widely reported in media
- No school children kidnapped in Ondo bus hijack as claimed by Shehu Sani
