Nigerian government makes debut on Indian social media app Koo after banning Twitter

It's been barely a week since Nigeria banned the US-based social media platform Twitter in the country. Now, the West African country's government has made its debut on Koo developed by a Bengaluru-based startup.

Koo co-founder R Aprameya expressed happiness over the new development.

The Nigerian government has been on tussle with Twitter after the latter took down President Muhammadu Buhari's tweet citing violation of abusive behaviour policy on June 2.

Last week, the government issued a gag order to state-run agencies to stop posting tweets on Twitter, and recently, it banned the platform in the country.

Now, Nigeria's Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed in a media interaction has revealed Twitter has come forward to hold a senior-level executive meeting to resolve the matter at the earliest.

"First and foremost, Twitter must register as a company in Nigeria," the minister said in an interview when asked about lifting the ban. It will be licenced by the broadcasting commission and must agree not to allow its platform to be used by those who are promoting activities that are inimical to the corporate existence of Nigeria, "Nigeria's Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed told AFP.

Read more | Nigeria says Twitter must register locally for ban to end

In India too, Twitter is involved in a bitter battle with the Modi-led government over non-compliance of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The government had asked all social media platforms to appoint Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person in the country.

Except for Twitter, all other major platforms owned by Facebook, WhatsApp, and Google have complied to the new IT rules, 2021.

Last week, the government sent the final notice to Twitter.

On June 9, Twitter named interim officers to the aforementioned posts and sought one week time to appoint full-time employees.

Must read | Twitter to appoint chief compliance officer within a week

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