2021

The Minister commented on Koo that new rules will protect users. In the recent cabinet reshuffle, Ashwini Vaishnaw was appointed as the new IT and Communications minister. He is of the view that new IT rules are ‘empowering’ and ‘will ensure a safer and responsible social media ecosystem’. The Minister of State for IT, Vaishnaw along with his colleague Rajeev Chandrasekhar reviewed the implementation and compliance of the Information Technology Rules, 2021 and posted on the made-in-India social media platform Koo, “Reviewed the implementation and compliance of Information Technology Rules, 2021 along with my colleague Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar Ji. These guidelines are empowering and protecting users and will ensure a safer and responsible social media ecosystem in India.” After the major cabinet reshuffle, the newly inducted IT Minister Vaishnaw made his debut on the social media platform Koo with the username @ashwinivaishnaw. Koo’s co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna welcomed the minister on his platform by saying, “We congratulate Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw on his induction into the Union Cabinet and are glad to welcome him to Koo. We look forward to enabling him to connect with people across the country as he shares plans and developments at the Ministries he manages.”Koo is a microblogging social media network and was launched in March 2020 by a Bengaluru based start-up. It is being popularly called India’s homegrown alternative to Twitter and has around 6 million users as of May 2021. Recently, in June 2021, Koo’s CEO Aprameya announced the confirmation of Nigeria’s government’s presence on Koo. He said, “A very warm welcome to the government of Nigeria on @kooindia. Spreading wings beyond India now.” However, recently the app found itself in a bit of a tough spot due to the delay in complying with India’s new IT rules for social media platforms.