Verification on Koo

Koo provides two kinds of ticks to its users. The yellow tick of eminence and the green tick of self-verification. Both these are detailed below in this document.

Eminence Tick @ Koo

Koo understands the value of leading personalities in a society or a region or a culture and recognizes them through its Eminence Accounts. The Yellow Tick also verifies an account as really belonging to the eminent person, and not to an imposter.

What is a Koo account of Eminence?

In recognition of the impact or stature or achievements or abilities of individuals in their local communities, Koo awards a Yellow Tick against user profiles. The award of the Yellow Tick is based on transparent predefined criteria and is a recognition that the user is a significant representative of the voices of their community.

The criteria measures leadership in all domains of life (spirituality, sports, arts, politics, digital arts and so on) both through actions as well as impact. The evaluation evolves constantly to ensure that all influential persons (and not just one person) from all communities are showcased and celebrated.

Why is the Yellow tick awarded?

Many celebrities are excited about applying for the Yellow tick without realizing that as much as it showcases them, the true reason for the tick is to help users.

Without the distinguishing tick, users will end up following the wrong celebrity / eminent personality. Without the tick, a user may never get to know the personality behind an account or appreciate their contributions and thoughts or engage with them.

The main reason why Koo grants a yellow tick to eminent personalities is because it is good for the user. WIth the tick, it is easier for the user to engage with diverse thoughts and opinions and create their own world view.

How is the yellow tick awarded?

The Koo Eminence Tick cannot be purchased. Koo is the first social media platform which celebrates Eminence with a clear and transparent methodology to recognise everyday heroes making an impact in their communities.

Users may apply for Yellow Tick Eminence recognition from within the Koo App or by writing to eminence.verification@kooapp.com. An evaluation response will be provided within 10 (ten) days. To know more about Eminence please visit this link.

Voluntary Self Verification @ Koo

Users that voluntarily self verify their account are granted a green tick. This tick indicates the fact that this user is a human. It does NOT indicate that the person is who they claim to be. This is to give users the right to anonymity online for various safety reasons.

Anonymity on social media is a much discussed topic. For long, anonymity has been considered a fundamental right of being on the internet. This is in contrast to the offline world, where anonymity is unavailable and an identity is important to avail basic services.

Green Tick

We use a simple and elegant technology to establish the fact that there is a human operating an account. And it is free. We don’t see why such a basic service needs to be charged for. Not only is it unnecessary but also against the ethos of enabling users to use the internet for free for the most basic of services.

In India, there is a voluntary self-verification requirement under the IT intermediary guidelines that requires platforms to provide users a way to self-verify their accounts, if they so desire. This is optional. Koo App became the first and only social media platform (globally) to offer its users the ability to voluntarily self themselves.

Self verification at Koo works on the following principles:

1. Voluntary Self verification is an opportunity for users to demonstrate their humanness and show that there is an authentic user behind a Koo profile.
2. The act of self verification, is a declaration that an online account is operated by a human and deserves to be given the attention and care as given to a human in the offline world.
3. This is an entirely voluntary process. No user is penalized for choosing not to self verify or remain anonymous.
4. Self verification is free on Koo and will continue to be so.
5. On successful completion, a green tick is placed next to the profile of the user to denote that the profile is validated for genuineness.

How is a Green Tick awarded?

Globally:

We will enable users to go through a very simple captcha flow that enables us to identify an account as human or a script. This flow doesn’t take more than 30 seconds to verify the humanness and the user immediately gets a green tick upon the completion of the process.

India:

In India, the intermediary guidelines require a social media platform to enable citizens to self verify their humanness using a nationally valid identity card. Koo has enabled the self-verification using the Aadhaar infrastructure. The verification services are provided by third party providers who comply with legal requirements of UIDAI in relation to storage and management of data. None of the identity information is stored by either parties.

They use a UIDAI API simply to verify the details entered by the user and authenticated through an OTP that the user receives on a mobile number that’s linked to their identity card. This process is the same as the process used for eKYC of bank accounts, employer/employee relationships and similar use cases. During this process, Koo does not store any Aadhaar number or biometric information or names. Koo only records whether an Aadhaar number submitted for verification was validated or rejected by UIDAI.

As the verification process is rolled out globally, Koo will implement trusted and easy to use methods to establish authenticity of accounts, without storing any personal information and in compliance with local laws. This process will be free of charge globally as well.

What does a Green Tick mean?

Koo believes that online users are likely to interact and engage with known, authentic voices, rather than with accounts that may appear fake. By enabling trust and authenticity through self verification, Koo is empowering users to stand up against bots and other bad actors. Users who self verify themselves are likely to get greater trust from other users for being honest about their intentions.

Self verification is an expression of humanness on the internet. Koo will continue to provide this digital right in all the countries that it operates, free of cost.