Relevance: GS-2: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance applications, successes, limitations

Key Phrases: Big Tech firms, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Amazon, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), European Union Digital Markets Act.

Why in News?

• Recently, many national governments have highlighted concerns over the monopoly of Big Tech firms impacting national sovereignty, fair competition, innovation diffusion, consumer rights, privacy, market efficiency, economy, and human progress.
• They raised questions many vital questions:
  1. Do Big Tech firms foster indigenous innovation, stimulate balanced growth, and protect national sovereignty?
  2. Is there sufficient sets of rules and clear framework to safeguard larger public interest ?
  3. Can nations be able to check the misuse of the internet with cybersecurity and secure data governance framework to make Google (Alphabet); Apple; Facebook (Meta); Amazon; and Microsoft, besides others, more responsible and resilient?

What are the various issues highlighted in the Editorial ?

•  Today, Big Techs are ubiquitous:
  1. Big TechMore today more powerful than governments, they wield immense power. For example, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), and Amazon platforms dominate global digital advertising with 74 percent mindshare and influence.
  2. Monopoly in search, advertising-intermediation, the duopoly of mobile OS (Apple and Google), and controls threaten sovereignty.
  3. Dominance of data and services by Big Tech leads to the concentration of excessive power, making economies heavily dependent, disrupting the financial systems, the economy, and geopolitics.
  4. There is much evidence that Big Tech also stifles fair business conduct, competition, data protection, and data-sharing.
• Rising incidents of Internet sanctions, intimidation, and emergence of splinternet by the Big Tech:
  1. During the Russia-Ukraine conflict, big tech played a major role in the geopolitical arena.
  2. Big Tech through their products, presence and investment have tried to manipulate the public opinion against the Russia during the war.
• Big Tech today controls the economy, national security, democracy:
  1. For instance, the growing trust deficit is evident as the US-based Big Tech firms accuse Russia’s sovereign internet (Runet) of controlling people, elections, and society.
  2. Russia blames the US for its aggressive, national, cybersecurity strategy—and seeks to stay immune. In response, Russia blocked access to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, and Twitter.
  3. Today, Apple, Microsoft, and Google have a strong impact on any nation's economy and public opinions.
• Rising concern regarding Apple or Google duopoly:
  1. This duopoly has lock-in people in a self-contained ecosystem with market dominance.
  2. This is detrimental to consumers, competition, and innovation across sectors and devices.
  3. Internet gatekeepers must nurture open, fair, and collaborative digital markets and citizen-centric initiatives.
• Dearth of Data Governance framework :
  • Regulatory gaps and lax governance of digital markets, allow personal data to be traded transnationally, hurting citizens’ rights and choices.

What are the solutions suggested in the Editorial for India?

• Need for Comprehensive Data protection regulations:
  1. India has one of the world’s largest open internet markets, India is working on a comprehensive data privacy framework to boost the digital economy whilst keeping personal data secure.
  2. Recently, the Joint Parliamentary Committee submitted its report. The upcoming rules are aimed at implementing stringent security safeguards.
  3. To ensure greater fairness in the allocation of value created by data, it is imperative to safeguard illegal access to Indian data by foreign governments.
  4. India must lay out the rights and obligations on the use of consumer and corporate data generated in smart gadgets, goods, and machinery.
• Embracing global best practices:
  1. Evolve a common, independent, apolitical, and neutral digital cyber infrastructure.
  2. Stronger algorithmic audit framework, and compliance standards.
  3. As artificial intelligence (AI) and deep analytics continue to replace human decision-making in our society, address the issues like openness, ethics, purpose, and accountability of the machine learning algorithms, rules and regulations.
  4. Try to make automated decision-making unbiased and free from discriminatory outcomes, algorithms must become transparent.
• Algorithmic transparency is a must to tame Big Tech platforms:
  1. Removing barriers to data sharing and developing cross-sector interoperability standards for data is vital.
  2. India must act on a national vision to produce a team of National Champions in Technology and Innovation by 2025 who would lead us in indigenous algorithm learning.
  3. To become self-reliant, the government should fund and support these firms to advance sophisticated apps of AI based algorithms.
  4. There are many things to learn from China’s Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, iFlytek etc, and how to protect national sovereignty by curtailing the influence of Big Tech firms.

Way Forward:

• Limiting the market power of Big Tech requires indigenous alternatives.
• Currently, India’s digital world rules are weak, as compared to ‘gold standard’ data protection legislation like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• Benchmarking against the global gold standards is the only way to excel.
  1. For example, the new European Union Digital Markets Act offers great insight for India to replicate.
  2. New Act controls access to the internet, be it through monopolies of search engines, duopolies of app stores, or devices.
  3. Similarly India must encourage indigenous technology innovations by start-ups, build resilient architecture, and open-APIs and a cybersecurity command centre.
• India must act now to reimagine the jurisprudence of Cyberspace and quickly look into how laws can help India gain legitimacy in cyberspace and plug in the legal loopholes in this space.
• India to make its technology policy powerful, innovative, and secure to protect national sovereignty, fair competition, inclusive innovation diffusion, consumer rights, privacy, market efficiency, economic growth, and human progress.

Source: Observer Research Foundation

Mains Question:

Q. What are the various issues identified in the functioning of Big Tech firms? Examine. To what extent would the law on Data Protection address the misuse of powers by Big Tech Firms? (15 Marks).