Bot problem is Twitter's own making, self-verification is a legal right: Koo CEO
2 min read . Updated: 10 Nov 2022, 07:11 PM IST
Premium- Koo CEO, Aprameya Radhakrishnan claimed that Twitter endorsed the bots before it became out of control
After the overhaul of Twitter with its takeover by Elon Musk, other social media platforms are closing in to attract users that are felling out of Twitter. In the same hope, the made-in-India Koo's co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna took a dig at Twitter and accused it of first creating bots and now charging users for verification. The top officer of the company also informed that Koo will not charge its users for verification.
"Bots on Twitter are known to be responsible for spreading fake news campaigns, spamming, violating others' privacy, and sock-puppet marketing. This is a problem of Twitter's own making," he told the news agency PTI.
Koo, a platform that is seen as an Indian rival of Twitter, as it allows its users to express views in Indian languages, has crossed 50 million downloads. The platform is now showcasing the benefits of joining Koo and is offering better deals at its platform with no cost.
Currently, Koo offers Aadhar based self-verification and a free-of-cost yellow verification tag for recognized users. The CEO of Koo also claimed that Twitter bots, also called zombies are automated accounts controlled by bot software. While resembling real Twitter users, these bot accounts tweet and re-tweet content for specific goals on a large scale.
Radhakrishnan claimed that at one time, Twitter endorsed the idea of bots, but now is struggling to control them. "Its only response (in 2021) has been to offer a program to label some bots as 'good' based on a declaration by the bot! This is an artificial solution and completely sidesteps the problem," he added.
"If Twitter is meant to be the town square of human interaction, then only real humans should be allowed to speak in the square," he said.
The CEO added that in the Indian social media space, it is a legal right to verify yourself as a human, according to Rule 4(7) of the Intermediary Guidelines, 2021.
"Just like the offline world, every human is entitled to be recognized as a human in the online world as well," he said.
He claimed that the Koo platform will protect this important human right and "the verification of humanness will always remain free."
"The ability to purchase a blue tick and be considered a special verified person is a disservice to the real heroes contributing to society. The purchased blue tick makes fun of these real heroes who must continue to pay a foreign company every month just to be recognized for their work," he added.
With inputs from PTI.
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