A new social media platform named Tooter, which was said to be a hybridization of Twitter and Facebook and was launched in July this year, is now catching attention because it has termed itself as “Swadeshi Andolan 2.0.”
Tooter is primarily sculpted in the pattern of the contemporary microblogging platform, Twitter, and has ‘tools fashioned after ‘tweet’. This new social media platform has glimpses of Parler too. Parler is a US-based platform which is also modeled after Twitter to promote “Free Speech”. As for the symbol of Tooter, a blue conch is chosen.
Tooter’s “About” page reads: “We believe India should have a Swadeshi social network. Without one we are just a digital colony of the American Twitter India Company, no different than what we were under the British East India Company. Tooter is our Swadeshi Andolan 2.0. Join us in this Andolan. Join us!”
“Terms of Service” page of Tooter on the other hand says that the primary aim of the platform is to promote “Free Speech” and has assured to provide best efforts to guarantee that all content moderation decision and enforcement of terms of service refrains from punishing users from practicing their “God-given right to speak freely”
Signing up on Tooter is very easy and interested users are required to visit the tooter.in the website and easily register themselves by providing an email ID, giving a user name, and a strong password. The app has already been made available on the Google Play Store.
Tooter already seems to have famous users including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, actor Abhishek Bachchan, Sadhguru, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) handle, and cricketer Virat Kohli. Although all of the eminent profiles on Tooter are verified, none of them have open up anything about creating an account on Tooter to the media.
In terms of activities, users can expect to get almost similar activities as they experience while using Twitter. They can hold a profile, follow, read their own news feed, and toot.
Tooter also has a premium version named Tooter Pro. Although it is yet unclear what the premium version has in special, the premium version of the application is made available for those who are willing to pay Rs.1,000.
It is reported that once a user creates a profile, he/she is automatically followed by two bot account one named “News” and another account credited to Tooter’s CEO (@Nanda). It is claimed that both these accounts were created back in June and before a user starts to follow any account of his/her choice, the news feed gets flooded with posts from bot accounts named “News”.
