Many people moved to Koo after Twitter was banned by the Nigerian government and bragged about it. Many gullible and hawkish social media users, claiming to detest Twitter for allowing inciting content, announced deactivating and moving to Koo with a flourish.
But, those signing up on Koo, should have done a bit of research. They would have discovered that Koo is a social media platform notorious for spreading hatred against Muslims — who are a maligned minority in India.
On Koo, Hindu supremacism is promoted. Many of the leading Indian politicians of the ruling BJP use the platform to promote hatred against Muslims. Koo allows and tacitly encourages hatred against Muslims.
It is a social media platform on which Muslims are called ‘jihadi dogs.’ Koo has been the favorite platform of BJP extremists’ advocacy of hatred, particularly targeting India’s minority Muslims.
The strength of Koo rests squarely on the support of Hindu politicians who have been working hard to build a nation in which Muslims are considered enemies. Many Hindu extremists who made a career out of attacking Muslims abandoned Twitter and moved to Koo where attacking Muslims flourish and are always trending.
A platform known for blatantly allowing false information to thrive should not be the option for anyone against incitement. Since Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister in 2014, the Hindu radicalism inspired BJP has been pushing a dodgy citizenship verification that clearly intends to render many Muslims stateless.
Religion; or Hinduism became the basis of citizenship under the controversial Citizenship laws passed by Modi’s government in December. 2019.
Also these laws were aimed at tagging millions of Muslims as ‘illegal migrants.’
The mainstream media and social media platforms like Koo allow such unfair treatment of Muslims to thrive.
In India, a Muslim can easily be killed by Hindu extremist mob based on the suspicion of dating a Hindu girl — they call it ‘love jihad’ to justify their violence.
In 2019, Bloomberg reported that a radical Hindu group posing as ‘Cow vigilante’ groups have killed at least 44 people – 36 of them Muslims — in three years. BJP top politicians always reportedly endorsed the violent activities of Cow vigilante.
The Indian police always look the other way — likewise the government of India. Based on its content, Koo is the one-stop-shop social media platform that allows Hindu extremists to promote hatred against Muslims.
Although Koo denied the allegations of promoting hatred, the reality is otherwise. Koo tolerates Indian politicians who call Muslims ‘infiltrators’ and ‘termites.’ Some of the extremists banned on Twitter moved to Koo where they have free reign; inciting violence against Muslims and sharing silly conspiracy theories that endanger Muslims.
Being offended by what one disagrees with is a recipe for self-destruction. Social media platforms will continue to face the daunting task of protecting freedom of expression and taming incitement and hatred. This is not going to be easy.
But the hysteric move to join Koo just shows how nuance is increasingly disappearing from our conversations and engagements as human beings. It also shows how we are easily carried away by populist sentiments and crowd mentality. It also shows how intolerant both sides of many arguments tend to be. Increasingly, people can only see their own side of the argument.
Malam Sanusi writes from Abuja
