13022021-LSTL-01.qxd 2/12/2021 11:26 PM Page 1 c m y b TRIBUNE Bad mood Parineeti Chopra is in a bad mood and the reason is on her face. On Instagram she wrote.”Who invited this pimple?” Making a sad face she revealed: “Mood is bad now bye.” BADSHAH IS BACK — IANS YRF Digital has launched a new single Top Tucker featuring Badshah, Uchana Amit, Yuvan Shankar Raja and Rashmika Mandanna. This song is one-of-a-kind fusion of Tamil and Hindi. LUDHIANA | SATURDAY | 13 FEBRUARY 2021 India’s alternative to Twitter, Koo — a local-language-based microblogging app — is buzzing with new users Coochy KOOing celebs P Sheetal OST the request to ban what our government alleges antinationalist tweets and accounts, which are creating an internal unrest, the ministers of central government have taken the inroads to voice their opinion via Koo app. The award-winning app, Koo is being downloaded at a fast rate and celebs including the likes of Anupam Kher, Subhash Ghai, Suzanne Bernert have already started kooing, because it lets you share your thoughts in the regional languages. After all, India is all things global with DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL SUZANNE BERNERT a tinge of culture and sanskar mixed in different proportions for each individual. Will tweet about Koo Swara takes a dig at those switching to Koo; Kangana is yet to reveal her Koo account Tweet wars are regular phenomena. This time, it’s Twitter versus Koo and the fight takes place on When we are competing against a global app, every single detail matters. Developers think of security as an after-thought. If Koo gets its act together, and manages its perception properly, it can become the default social network for Indians. The next battle is going to be on the vernacular ground. Twitter is limited mostly to elites. I’m rooting for Koo. If the next election campaign happens on Koo (in regional languages), we will know it has dethroned Twitter in India. —Tech expert Joseph Jude PRREIT KAMAL Twitter yet again. If there are memes doing the rounds for asking to ban Twitter on Twitter, then celebs that are trolled for their far left political views are saying goodbye to progovernment accounts. Actress Swara Bhasker is the first one to jump in celebration and writes, “My loving farewell to all the trolls, Bhakt-mandali and nafrati chintus flocking to #Koo #kooapp Miss me guys!” “Hurray, the bhakts are leaving @twitter. Will #Koo be a coup? Hardly likely as it sounds drearily and dreadfully sarkari,” says the tweet of author, columnist Sagrika Ghose. Making the move Songs such as Tujhe yaad karenge and Humko hamin se chura lo are being compared to the situation of celebs and politicians. The question is whether stars with millions of followers on Twitter will forsake the app? If the ever-socourageous Kangana Ranaut has moved to the new app but is not ready to reveal her Koo c m y b account, many will have second thoughts. On Wednesday, she announced on Twitter, “Your time is up @Twitter time to shift to #kooapp will inform everyone soon about my account details there. Absolutely thrilled to experience home grown #kooapp.” Creating a stir Kangana has been taking a dig at Jack Dorsey, CEO Twitter, for quite some time now and also refers to him as Jack chacha. Sharing a news report that Twitter has suffered a net loss of $1.14 billion in year 2020, she writes, “This is just the beginning of your end .... watch out for 2021 data @jack”. In another tweet she writes, “Honourable Prime Minister ji jo galti Great warrior Prithaviraj Chauhan ji ne ki thi woh bilkul mat karna .... uss galti ka naam tha maafi... kitni bhi maafi mange bilkul maaf mat karna. (Honourable Prime Minister, please do not repeat that one mistake of great warrior Prithvi Raj Chauhan, that is of forgiveness. No matter how many times they ask for it, don’t give it in) @Twitter. They conspired for a civil war in India. #BanTwitterInIndia” Been there, done that German-Indian actress Suzanne Bernert, who was seen in The Accidental Prime Minister as Sonia Gandhi, has been using the Koo app since July, 2020. She tweets, “What’s with #Koo all of a sudden? Am on it since July 2020, Aur haan, Hindi mein (And yes, that too in Hindi).” Actress Prreit Kamal is exploring the app. She says, "I haven't gotten a chance to use it much but I have downloaded the app and observed it has user-friendly interface.” ABOUT THE APP ■ Launched in March, 2020 ■ Co-founded by entrepreneurs Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka ■ Won the government’s Atmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge that brought it into the spotlight. ■ In place of retweet, it gives the option to rekoo and verified accounts will be shown with a yellow tick mark. ■ It also gives an easy access to directly share the koos on Facebook and Whatsapp ■ Besides English, it is available in four Indian languages, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese, Punjabi, Malayalam, Oriya and Bengali will soon be added to its data base.