IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad praises Koo — India's alternative to Twitter

In an apparent message to Twitter, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday appreciated Koo, a homegrown alternative to Twitter in Parliament.

"Koo is a made-in-India app that has become a toast for success today and we should be proud of it. It is a matter of pride for me that Indians are heading so many multi-technology companies. Let us salute the extraordinary courage of our start-ups," Prasad said during the Question Hour in Rajya Sabha.

Also Read | French cyber expert shows data leak on Koo app, company denies any breach

The government and Twitter have been in a tussle for the past 10 days over blocking of Twitter accounts related to farmers protest.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Wednesday used Koo to post message express its displeasure over a Twitter blog post.

For the past few days, many Union Ministers and government departments have opened their accounts on Koo.

Several BJP leaders openly called on Indians to support Koo to counter Twitter.

Also Read | French cyber expert shows data leak on Koo app, company denies any breach

Koo, which is one of the winners in the 'Social category' of the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge', has witnessed a 10-fold surge in its downloads in the past two days.

Koo is an app like Twitter which was launched 10 months ago. The app was developed by Aparameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka. The app is available in several languages, including Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Odiya and Assamese.

The NDA government upset with Twitter after the popular social media platform refused to follow a government order to block some accounts belonging to civil society activists.

Also Read | Koo: All you need to know about this 'desi' Twitter

Commenting on the government's commitment to free speech and individual freedom, Prasad told Parliament, "This government is led by leaders who have fought for the freedom of individuals, freedom of media, independence of the judiciary."

"This includes our Prime Minister, you, Rajnath Singh ji, Prakash Javadekar and also me. Our commitment to freedom of media is complete and total. But we are equally concerned about the security and sovereignty of India," Prasad told Rajya Sabha chairperson Venkaiah Naidu.