Kolkata, July 2022: To encourage youth on safe and responsible use of technology, Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the CyberPeace Foundation have announced collaboration with Koo, India’s multi-lingual social media app for the #CybersKool initiative. The initiative aims to sensitize college students across India over the next 11 months to make the internet and social media far more safe and reliable.

CybersKool will conduct a series of interactive webinars, panel discussions, workshops and competitions focused on information exchange around ethical online practices, cyber rights and duties, and responsible online behavior. As an inclusive platform for sharing thoughts and opinions in native languages, Koo will run interactive activities for students like slogan writing and quizzes to encourage knowledge-sharing around online safety. Along with students, other relevant stakeholders like parents, guardians and the faculty are expected to participate in the activities. The year long campaign will conclude with the release of a digital Cyber Safety Manual that will carry learnings from #CybersKool. The manual will be available on Koo website for students to read.

An independent and responsible platform, Koo has been driving citizen outreach efforts on an ongoing basis along with CERT-In around cyber security. With India being one of the fastest growing internet markets in the world, the need to inform and educate users, especially the youth around cyber hygiene, carries tremendous significance.

A Koo Spokesperson said, “At Koo, in our effort to drive freedom of expression on social media in native languages, promoting safe and responsible user behaviour is a priority for us. #CybersKool initiative together with CERT-In and the CyberPeace Foundation is another step in that direction.”
Major Vineet Kumar, Founder and Global President, CyberPeace Foundation said, “Students are active internet users and hence, one of the most vulnerable ones as well. #Cyberskool – in partnership with a credible multi-lingual platform like Koo – becomes necessary to educate the youth and relevant stakeholders about secure online practices. We are grateful for the association and look forward to a successful campaign ahead.

Director General, CERT-In, Dr. Sanjay Bahl said, “Cyber security awareness on latest malicious cyber activities is a key element for Internet users and citizens to protect themselves from such activities. CERT-In, Kooapp and Cyber Peace Foundation are jointly organizing a year long cyber security awareness campaign “CybersKool” and launched it on 6th July 2022 as part of ‘Cyber Jagrookta Diwas’. The objective of this program is to sensitize the Internet users especially college level students and school children on safety & security tips for protecting themselves from cyber attacks, frauds and crimes. Along with CERT-In, Kooapp, the Indian Microblogging and multi-language platform is actively working on creating cyber security awareness among Indian citizens in their local language. CERT-In sincerely hopes that this campaign will help the Internet users to understand that the technology used for empowering them to foster creativity and innovation must be used in a responsible, trusted and secure manner.”
About Koo

Koo, a multi-lingual, micro-blogging platform was launched in March 2020. The objective was to enable users across the World to express themselves online in their mother tongue. An innovator of language-based micro-blogging, currently Koo is available in 10 languages – Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bengali and English. The platform’s unique features include a translation feature which enables real-time translation of a post across the slew of languages, while retaining the sentiment and context of the original text. This enhances reach and garners greater traction for a user. The app has over 30 million downloads and is actively leveraged by over 7,000 people of eminence across politics, sports, media, entertainment, spirituality, and art & culture to connect with their followers in multiple languages.

About CyberPeace Foundation
CyberPeace Foundation (CPF) is an award-winning civil society organization, think tank of cyber security and policy experts with the vision of pioneering cyber peace Initiatives to build collective resiliency against cybercrimes & global threats of cyber warfare. CyberPeace Foundation is involved in Policy Advocacy, Research and Training related to all aspects of cyber peace and cyber security. Key areas of CyberPeace Foundation work are in Technology Governance, Policy Review and Advocacy, Capacity and Capability creation and building through partnerships with various government organizations, academic institutions and civil society entities.