Free speech and right wing are fundamentally incompatible in India. No matter how much the founder of Koo dreams of being "apolitical", soon enough there will be a barrage of "hurting religious sentiments" charges on him or any of his users signed off by random small town judges anywhere in the country. Look at the number of activists, journalists, comedians or any other citizens behind bars today for simply liking the wrong tweet or facebook post.
Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
21–30 of 208 posts
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does 'nationalism' concern you. Is 'nationalism' always or almost always negative?
Nationalism is always negative to me because I define it as blind allegiance to a tribe who you don't hold accountable.
unfortunately "blind allegiance to a tribe who you don't hold accountable" applies to almost everyone who regularly engages with social media.
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#23I grew up in India - nationalism is definitely a growing concern for the country IMO, more so than can be expressed online by articles such as this. And nationalism definitely has a huge overlap with hinduism in the country. Creating siloed media platforms that lets such ideas fester and grow is probably the worst thing that can happen. The thing is that even gently challenging these ideas (with some folks I know bac…
Why does 'nationalism' concern you. Is 'nationalism' always or almost always negative?
Nationalism vs. Patriotism
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#24The actions of Twitter regarding the last election have almost certainly guaranteed the rise of foreign social media sites. If they have no qualms restricting the speech of the president of America, clearly they’ll have no issue manipulating other governments. American social media sites really have no one to blame but themselves. I say this from a realpolitik perspective. This was clearly the obvious outcome.
Hate speech inciting violence is what was banned not any speech.
They’ve clearly shown themselves to have huge biases. The policy on “hacked” materials is a good example that was selectively applied only against one side.
I’m really not a Trump fan and find most of the “conservative” media hilariously amateurish, but if you don’t see the obvious bias Silicon Valley has, I’m afraid you’re not paying close enough attention.
From the perspective of a foreign government, why let them control information in your country? As I said, it makes no sense for them to do so.
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#25I grew up in India - nationalism is definitely a growing concern for the country IMO, more so than can be expressed online by articles such as this. And nationalism definitely has a huge overlap with hinduism in the country. Creating siloed media platforms that lets such ideas fester and grow is probably the worst thing that can happen. The thing is that even gently challenging these ideas (with some folks I know bac…
How many of them use the NaMo (narendra modi) app? That's been very successful at creating a pro-Modi fake news machine.
https://qz.com/india/1534754/modis-namo-app-spreads-pro-bjp-...
iirc BJP (Modi's political party) was also a big client of Cambridge Analytica and various whatsapp based troll farms. I remember rumors from around the time of the last American election that some of Modi's tech advisors were helping the Trump campaign on how to use whatsapp groups, but I'm not sure if that's true.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/us-presidential...
It seems that connecting a billion more people to the internet in the past few years has accelerated the rise of ultra-nationalism via memes and fake news.
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#26"instructed their followers to leave Western social networks for Koo, a local, free-speech platform." This is a funny turn of phrase given that it sounds like a lot of people are leaving twitter for Koo because twitter isn't doing enough banning to suit them.
There's also some opinion that advocates having self-reliant communication channels and tech-platforms. Recent banning of Trump, Parler and Australian news from Facebook invigorated their drive.
I support what the Koo founder is doing, he sounds like an upstanding guy who wants to build a social platform that better meets his countrymen's needs (Indian language) and that's fantastic. I just thought the "we're going to a free speech platform" was a funny angle when twitter's being abandoned in this case for too much speech.
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#27The site's creation is understandable when considering how destabilizing social media has been. Just look at how the US has changed from 2008 to now. Here's a particularly relevant quote from the article: "Every social media [platform] has to be responsible, to a certain extent, of what they bring into a country because it defines a lot of things in the country, like youth culture or how citizens of a country react t…
A rather lackluster solution to the power of social media in current society. A nationalist-approved twitter clone seems most likely an euphemism for a politically-controlled echo box to preserve the status quo and foster ultra-nationalism. Reeks of an Indian Parler, and that didn't turn out great.
I am curious. You complain of the potential for it becoming a "a politically-controlled echo box," but how is that different from the current big social media sites? They are blatantly controlled too.
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does 'nationalism' concern you. Is 'nationalism' always or almost always negative?
I found this segment on Amanpour & Co. helpful in understanding nationalism and how it's used by fascists. https://www.pbs.org/wnet/amanpour-and-company/video/how-fasc... My take away was fascists gain compliance by nationalism above anything including basic human rights.
The great Stalin himself was Nationalist in spite of the whole world communism spiel. When shit hits the fan, 'national identity' where people coalesce. Damn it, right in front of our fucking eyes, CCP is doing this shit with their wolf warrior diplomacy.
Re: Koo, India’s free-speech Twitter alternative
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does 'nationalism' concern you. Is 'nationalism' always or almost always negative?
'nationalism' is typically distinguished from patriotism; the latter is a love of country -- the former is the conviction that one's country is better than other countries, on the basis of a rank tribalism.
From wikipedia:
Nationalism is an idea and movement that promotes the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people),[1] especially with the aim of gaining and maintaining the nation's sovereignty (self-governance) over its homeland. Nationalism holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity[2] and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power (popular sovereignty).[1][3] It further aims to build and maintain a single national identity, based on shared social characteristics of culture, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics (or the government), religion, traditions and belief in a shared singular history,[4][5] and to promote national unity or solidarity.[1] Nationalism seeks to preserve and foster a nation's traditional cultures and cultural revivals have been associated with nationalist movements.[6] It also encourages pride in national achievements and is closely linked to patriotism.[7][8][page needed] Nationalism is often combined with other ideologies such as conservatism (national conservatism) or socialism (left-wing nationalism).[2]