Koo is selling itself as a Twitter substitute in Nigeria

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2021-06-17 18:00:07

Just under a week after the Nigerian government abruptly announced Twitter would be blocked in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari opened an account on Koo, an Indian microblogging platform. His new account, along with others created by — or on behalf of — government officials, was quickly given a yellow tick of verification.

Buhari’s administration has been vocal about their desire to impose control over social media, which has been widely used by activists and opposition groups to challenge government narratives. Nigeria’s ministry of information and culture has imposed increasingly stringent regulations, under the guise of tackling “misinformation.” On June 2, Twitter deleted a tweet by Buhari that appeared to threaten violence against his political opponents. Two days later, the government suspended Twitter, which led to some local telecom companies blocking access to the platform.

Koo moved fast to take advantage of the ban. Within days, the app was available on Apple and Google’s app stores in Nigeria, and job ads had been posted on LinkedIn seeking local language speakers. The company’s approach in Nigeria — its first international expansion — mirrors the circumstances of its rise to prominence in its home market. In India, Koo has positioned itself as a government-friendly alternative to Twitter, at a time when the San Francisco-based company’s vocal support for freedom of expression is at odds with Prime Minister Modi-led government’s attempts to curb dissent. But Koo’s zeal in complying with government rules — in a country that has a history of cracking down on internet freedom — has established it as a partisan platform for India’s populist right wing.