Staring at an Abyss

Context: The changing role of Internet urges for revolutionary change in India's laws governing the internet.

Need for revolutionary change in India's laws governing the internet

• Insecure privacy of user data: reports suggest the use of the internet user data for political operations.
  • To influence elections e.g. in the United States, the United Kingdom, Kenya, Mexico, and India.
• Fake news/misinformation on the internet: E.g. there was fake news that Kamala Harris, vice-president of the United States, started her first day in office with Vedic mantras and pujas.
• Tension between countries: Countries are imposing a ban on other countries’ web apps. E.g. Indian banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, WeChat, and Baidu.
• De-generation of the Internet: presently it is not a place and technology that would allow all citizens to express their views and wisdom and share it with others.
• Possibilities of disastrous consequences: Technical innovation and entrepreneurial energy, when allowed to flourish unbridled, can create disastrous consequences.
  • E.g.  First Industrial Revolution started with the goal of using machines to do the boring, repetitive tasks involved in the spinning of cotton yarn and the weaving of cotton cloth.
  • But it was associated with evils like the enslavement of Africans to work in cotton fields and British exploiting India for raw materials.
• Increase rate of internet adoption and use: Due to Covid induced necessities like online education, online judicial hearing, online health diagnosis, etc.
• Changing role of the Internet: From being a fun thing to something more central to the lives of people from all walks of life and also a critical part of our defence and law-and-order infrastructure.

Way forward: To deal with new challenges posed by the Internet

• Update competition law: To deal with excessively subsidized online sales.
• Update privacy law: To bring it in line with Europe’s privacy law.
• New legislation to create genuinely Indian venture capital and a private equity sector and Indian-owned internet industry that can support both our defence needs as well as our economic growth needs.