Twitter suspends Indian rival Koo’s queries account, co-founder slams Elon Musk

Mayank Bidawatka, the co-founder of Koo. (Image credit: Twitter)

The co-founder of India's home-grown microblogging platform Koo hit out at Twitter boss Elon Musk after their handle for user queries was suspended.

Twitter has banned the account @kooeminence amid a wave of suspensions affecting its competitors and top journalists.

Mayank Bidawatka posted a thread on his personal Twitter account, criticising the social network's decisions and promoting his platform as the "best alternative to Twitter".

He also spoke about Twitter blocking access to links of Mastodon, the site to which many users migrated after Elon Musk's takeover. It claimed Mastodon's links were malware.

"I mean seriously. How much more control does the guy (Elon Musk) need?" Bidawatka said, listing Elon Musk's recent moves that have drawn widespread criticism.

3. Leaving spaces without answering journalists is bad.
4. Creating policies out of thin air to suit yourself is worse.
5. Changing your stance every other day is inconsistent.
6. Posting a video of an unknown car on Twitter with the car plate showing - how's that allowed?

— Mayank Bidawatka (@mayankbidawatka) December 16, 2022

Even the United Nations and European Union have criticised Elon Musk for banning the accounts of top journalists, including those from CNN and The New York Times.

Some of those journalists had reported on the Elon Musk saying one of his children was followed by a "crazy stalker" and linking the incident to tracking of his jet.

UN chief Antonio Guterres' spokesperson said the bans set a"dangerous precedent at a time when journalists all over the world are facing censorship, physical threats and even worse".

EU Commissioner Vera Jourova said the "arbitrary suspension" of journalists from Twitter was concerning and warned Elon Musk of fines under European laws, news agency AFP reported.

"Elon Musk should be aware of that. There are red lines. And sanctions, soon," Jourova said.

Many others pointed out how Elon Musk's actions ran contrary to his claims of being a free speech absolutist.

(With inputs from AFP)