Bharat is a huge market for the big tech. Digital media giants like Meta, Google, Microsoft, etc. get access to valuable data of millions of users virtually for free. A majority of internet users in Bharat are still not 100 percent digital literate, so many have no idea that their personal data is being used by the big tech giants to market all sorts of products and services to them. It’s a vicious circle. The lure of big tech is alluring. As our lives get easier with all the Google travel, hotel, and movie recommendations, we willingly surrender to a system of 24*7 surveillance. It’s like living in a big tech dystopia, happily, willingly, and of one’s own accord.
The book “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Power: 5 Battlegrounds” by Rajiv Malhotra puts forward the premise that Bharat is in danger of becoming a digital colony of countries like China and the US if it doesn’t make efforts to develop its own digital ecosystem and stops being in perpetual awe of the big tech hegemony that’s been thrust upon us.
He further elaborates on how the big tech companies have become so powerful that they have the ecosystem to collaborate with all sorts of stakeholders and regimes to instill political instability in a particular country, orchestrate protests, influence, elections, topple governments, and eventually disrupt democracy. We have ourselves seen how algorithms of social media giants like YouTube are biased towards the leftist Islamist viewpoint and nationalist or pro-Hindu Dharma content creators are needlessly hounded, their channels banned repeatedly, and their videos receiving a strike without any tangible violation in place.
The recent case of Google’s AI search Gemini giving a rather biased response to a query regarding PM Modi being a fascist is also a glaring example of the inherent biases of big tech, and the dangerous implications these have for Bharatiya civil society and culture. Google had recently started de-listing hundreds of Bharatiya apps from its Play Store due to their alleged non-compliance with Google’s new payment regulations. The companies had been asking for ease in using third-party payment options instead of being forced to go for Google’s payment system.
All the deleted Bharatiya apps are reportedly in the process of being re-installed after the intervention of the government. The Communication and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the two sides will work together to arrive at a long-term solution, but Google made it clear it was reinstalling the apps only temporarily as appeals were pending in the Supreme Court, according to various media reports.
This instance again shows the high-handedness of big tech when it comes to Bharat and its flat refusal to take into account the interests of Bharatiya stakeholders. Google forcing app developers registered on its Play Store platform to pay only using Google’s payment system is a classic case of use of power to create a monopoly of one’s products and services, but in the absence of any specific laws regulating big tech, Bharatiya ministers have no option but to discuss it out with Google.
It’s disappointing to see Bharat cut a sorry figure in front of these big tech companies even as they repeatedly indulge in flagrant violations, think themselves above the local law, and on top of that if the Bharatiya government takes any action against them, accuse the government of curbing freedom of expression. Remember how Twitter, before Elon Musk brought the platform and renamed it X, played the freedom of expression game with the Bharatiya government. The leftist-Islamist nexus of Twitter and its blatant censorship of any alternative viewpoint had become a headache for the Bharatiya government. It had almost become mightier than the Bharatiya state as it became a self-proclaimed champion of freedom and liberty and harassed various Bharatiya leaders, officials, and intellectuals by blocking their accounts and curbing their freedom of expression.
A lot of time has passed since then and Bharat still doesn’t have a separate law in place to keep in check the hegemony of big tech. On the contrary, the European Union recently rolled out a new set of regulations for big tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. One of the major features of these new requirements is that app developers will now be able to use alternative billing systems and not just Google Play billing. Also, a new programme will allow them to directly land European users outside their app to promote products.
Now if Bharat had such regulations in place, our tech startups couldn’t have been harassed by Google the way they were. The harassment will undoubtedly continue for some time to come as Google has clearly stated it’s reinstalling the apps only temporarily. In the absence of any legally binding regulations, the government has little ground for talking tough to Google beyond a point.
For developing a truly resilient tech startup ecosystem, the government must reduce its dependency on big tech companies like Microsoft for various programmes and initiatives like Digital India. Nothing in this world comes for free, not from the big tech at least! If we are collaborating with them to develop our digital infrastructure, the partnership should be on equal terms and conditions, otherwise we risk becoming a digital colony of these big tech companies.
The new EU law for big tech known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA) places many restrictions on big tech companies to make the playing field more level for various other companies in the tech ecosystem. Another salient feature of this law is that it gives more power and ownership to users regarding the usage of their data by big tech companies. EU users will now be asked for consent to allow Google to share their data across its products and services. If they refuse to give consent, Google will not be able to share their data across its various services and products, as per the new EU regulations. For example, EU’s Google users will be able to prevent their browsing and search histories from being shared with let’s say Google’s YouTube platform, which could affect the recommendations received by these users on YouTube.
Yet another significant change is that Google will now alter search results in the EU to drive more traffic to independent comparison-shopping or travel-booking sites, instead of directing users towards Google-owned tools and services like Google Flights. Under new EU regulations, Google will also allow Android users to select their own preferred browser and search engine from a list of given options instead of having to use Google Chrome’s browser and search engine by default.
Violations of the EU Digital Markets Act could lead to fines of up to 10 percent of a company’s global revenue and up to 20 percent for repeat offenses, as per various media reports. For most big-tech companies, this would translate to sums of tens of billions of dollars.
Even as the Bharatiya government has taken many initiatives to strengthen the country’s digital infrastructure through monumental programmes like Digital India, Bharat’s tech startups are still struggling. There are many innovative local tech startups that are simply not known enough because of the monopoly of the big tech. Google’s Play Store is structured in such a way that it prioritizes certain apps in its search engine, therefore, you wouldn’t be able to download many Bharatiya apps unless you know them by name.
Look at the Koo app. It started on such a promising note but due to lack of support from the government, it has gone into oblivion. All our politicians and ministers regularly post on X, treating it like their official diplomatic announcement forum. Yet, how many of them have cared to post anything on Koo, a Bharatiya app designed on the lines of X, and one that supports Bharatiya languages? Until we start taking real pride in our indigenously developed tech startups and start giving them more preference than the big tech companies, things are not going to change.
Speaking from the geopolitical context, Bharat is in a rather strong position. We are aggressive and forthright in openly critiquing the hypocrisy of the west and international organizations like the UN. Thus, we are in a position to act tough with big tech and safeguard the interests of Bharatiya businesses and citizens at large.
We shouldn’t let our citizens be used as experimental rats in big tech’s quest to push even more products and services down the throats of people. Big tech companies look at us as a big consumer market. But it’s high time we give them the message that we are anything but just a consumer. Bharat should show them that it has the strategic capability and foresight to make its own rules and regulations for controlling big tech.
