Nigerian govt has a verified Koo account now

NEW DELHI: Nearly a week after banning American microblogging site Twitter indefinitely, the Nigerian government embraced its Indian alternative Koo on Thursday.


The Nigerian government now has a verified account (@Nigeriagov) on Koo, and is followed by 12k people. It has also started putting out regular official updates on the platform and has written over 20 posts.

Koo had made an entry into Nigeria after Twitter was banned in the country for deleting an “offensive” post by President Muhammadu Buhari. Shortly after the ban on June 5, Koo had started its services there.

Koo, owned by Bombinate Technologies, has been touted as India's alternative to American tech giant Twitter, after it was founded in March 2020. It currently has over 6 million users in India and a number of influential politicians, especially belonging to the BJP, including Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal, have joined the platform. Actress Kangana Ranaut, whose Twitter account was suspended last months, is also active on Koo.

Koo cofounder Aprameya Ramdhakrishna took to Twitter to announce Nigerian government’s arrival on Koo. “A very warm welcome to the official handle of the Government of Nigeria on @kooindia! Spreading wings beyond India now,” he wrote.

Twitter’s standoff with the Nigerian government began in October 2020, after CEO Jack Dorsey had supported anti-government protests #EndSars, a series of peaceful protests against the country’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The squad had been accused of brutality against citizens. “Donate via #Bitcoin to help #EndSARS,” Dorsey tweeted on October 15, 2020.

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