Ever since the Digital India campaign was started and with the recent Chinese app bans happening, one thing is clear, there is a real need for Indian platforms for Indian users. That being said, most of the innovation that is coming out from Indian app developers has been quite lackluster. Most of the Indian made apps that have garnered any level of attention seems to be clones of their Chinese counterparts. If you were thinking that was going to change anytime soon then think again.
Made In India Twitter, Tooter:
A new Made in India social media platform has emerged called Tooter. What’s Tooter you ask? It’s literally a Twitter clone. That’s is all there’s to it. Tooter is such a clone of Twitter that even the color scheme, design, and everything else about it is “Twitter-ish” if that makes any sense. Clearly, imagination is not the strong suit of this “Made in India” Twitter alternative but more importantly, who’s on Tooter?
According to Livemint, no one is there. It seems Tooter is sourcing its “toots” from Twitter. When you make an account on Tooter, you will be followed by a bot named “NEWS” and the other account is of its CEO Nanda. That is when you make an account on Tooter cause for that you need either a Yahoo e-mail address or a Gmail address. There is also an android app for Tooter, which also is a blatant copy of Twitter.
According to Tooter, Tooter is a Swadeshi social network. You can create an account on Tooter and post short messages, called Toots which can contain text, pictures, videos, etc. You can follow and be followed by other users. When users that you follow post Toots, these are visible on your timeline. You can get notifications when you are mentioned in a Toot, you received a reply to your Toot, etc. You can control the events that send you notifications as well.
We don’t exactly know how Twitter is going to take this blatant violation of Intellectual property or if it even cares. Now moving to why Tooter was created. At least the idea that made Tooter happen was an interesting albeit political one. See, Tooter isn’t just copying Twitter but other US social network platforms like GAB and Parler as well. What Too-ter is supposed to be is a safe haven for free speech but that is not quite possible due to a number of factors.
What is tooter from a technological stand point? Tooter has adopted the codebase of GAB, a social media initiative by US based neo-nazis. GAB was originally forked from Mastodon, which is open source.
What is GAB? Some perspective here:https://t.co/TrrGIhRXye
— Pratik Sinha (@free_thinker) November 24, 2020
What Too-ter actually is going to be is a dead platform in a few months. Do you know why? Well, when you make a platform with the idea of free speech you tend to overlook that your platform is going to offer your version of “free speech.” One of the many reasons why Twitter does ban accounts is because it violates the policies of Twitter and not of free speech. Twitter was never about free speech. While everyone who wants to be the next Twitter always gets it wrong. Gab got it wrong. Parler got it wrong and Too-ter also got it wrong.
Too-ter is an Indian right-wing political platform that will promote right-wing politics. Is it something that Too-ter wants to do? Probably not. Chances are that the devs or the person responsible behind Too-ter wants it to be a truly Indian alternative to Twitter but that won’t happen. Most users who join Too-ter will have right-wing affiliations and will echo each other’s opinions which will create an echo chamber of ideas. Surprisingly enough, what makes Twitter fun in the first place is that you can battle with your ideas.
Some Nice Tooter Memes:
Twitter Tooter pic.twitter.com/JBVQMLJS5Z
— The Bong Next Door (@VotHardVotHard) November 24, 2020
Twitter Tooter pic.twitter.com/nPixzMBwUH
— ROFL_SELMON_BHOI (@car_wala_banda) November 24, 2020
tooter is like the adibas version of twitter. some jokes just write themselves pic.twitter.com/isP3CNrcFf
— pfizer soze (@floydimus) November 24, 2020
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