Twitter suspended the indigenous social media site Koo’s handle on Friday. Multiple sources reported that the Elon Musk-led tech giant did not provide any reason behind the suspension.
“We have no idea why this account was suspended. We’re going to write to Twitter and figure out why. I’m even worried about our other accounts being suspended because today Mastodon was also suspended for no reason. We also cater to queries from our users on these Twitter accounts. We have multiple accounts for countries like India and Brazil and for grievance redressal,” Mayank Bidwatka, the co-founder of Koo, told The Economic Times, expressing his concern on the latest development.
Aprameya Radhakrishna, another co-founder of the platform, took the issue on Twitter and wrote, “One of the Koo handles on Twitter just got banned. For what?! Because we compete with Twitter? So? Mastodon also got blocked today. How is this free speech and what world are we living in? What’s happening here?”
One of the Koo handles on Twitter just got banned. For what?! Because we compete with Twitter? So? Mastodon also got blocked today. How is this free speech and what world are we living in?
— Aprameya 🇮🇳 (@aprameya) December 16, 2022
What's happening here @elonmusk? @katienotopoulos @tculpan @PranavDixit @aubreyhirsch pic.twitter.com/av5KkkBqsV
Recently, Koo launched its operations in Brazil as an alternative to Twitter.
Since the takeover by the business tycoon Elon Musk, Twitter has been subjected to a lot of controversies. It recently laid off 7,500 employees to keep the company on the profitability track. A few days back, the US-based tech giant disbanded the Trust and Safety Council, an advisory group of nearly 100 independent civil and human rights organisations, that used to provide suggestions on content.
Prior to the suspension of Koo's account, Twitter was accused of removing the handles of some journalists who tweeted about Musk's tiff with a college student. The student reportedly tracked Musk's private jet.