Happy Independence Day
Platforms and Freedom of Expression
Happy Independence Day 2021.
Everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life and a secret life.
Gabriel García Márquez to his biographer Gerald Martin
I have written about power of platforms in democracy, nation states, regulations, negative network externalities , brands, news media and social good. I have tried to summarise some of the key learnings from previous posts to discuss the Platforms’ influence on our public life in this summary post titled Platforms and Public Life.
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DTW
During the Week, Supreme Court Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, the second most senior judge of the Supreme Court, retired after serving a seven-year term.
“One of the lions that guarded the judicial institution; one of the strong pillars of the contemporary Judicial System’.
Chief Justice of India NV Ramana at the farewell of Justice Nariman
Justice Nariman disposed of over 13,500 cases and delivered historic verdicts including decriminalising consensual gay sex, permitting women of all ages to enter Kerala’s Sabarimala temple and most importantly the declaration of privacy as a fundamental right and setting aside an IT Act provision empowering arrests.
The two decisions including privacy as a fundamental right and safeguarding from harsher provisions of IT Act would be remembered as his lasting legacy.
Platforms and Freedom of Expression have two facets- Protecting citizens right to privacy as well as freedom of expression AND protecting platforms from unfettered state control.
About platforms and Freedom of Expression, it is true that platforms have freed us from the tyranny of space and time and have enabled us to organise/protest (an inherent feature of democracy) at scale. In many ways , they have made our democracies more open, more direct, more interactive, more inclusive and definitely more relatable to more & more disenfranchised segments of society. They have afforded convenient and affordable stage to organise on local, glocal and global issues. Calls to control, break or ban platforms in interest of free speech or national security have added another dimension to the discourse. Many governments are wary of power of these platforms for helping the minorities or fringe groups to organise themselves and create movements on ground. Some of the encryption offered by the platforms make them a difficult proposition from a law enforcement perspective and thus there have been calls to create “local data centres”. State’s power to regulate information has been enhanced as internet shut down can effectively curb all forms of communications. Censorship whether official or unofficial is easier to impose as very few platforms control most of the market.
Protecting Platforms from unfettered state controls remains a priority. Relationship between platforms and Nation States could be seen through a three dimensional framework - first, platforms being supra-national; second, platforms as national identities; and third, platforms as tools of nations. Nations have to think out-of-box to deal with platforms as their relationship is going to become ever more complex. We are entering a new world where seemingly unrelated events in far off countries can have damning consequences for millions far away in time and space. Technology and globalisation have increased the potential of platforms acquiring power that they should not have and can not control ! The fact remains that the platforms themselves have been responsible for spread of false and at times malicious content. On the other hand, state has been trying to control the narrative through various measures including controlling the platforms.
Prof Scott Galloway talks about Twitter and Facebook as rage machines and argues for strict regulations of their algorithm when their revenue/business/engagement model depends on propaganda/hate speech. Platforms claims of not being a publishers and hence not responsible for the content published on their sites flies in the face of evidence that they tweak their algorithms to allow/promote certain content over others and thus “"Control the Narrative”.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton -"There is nothing wrong with Platforms & Democracy that cannot be cured by what is right with Platforms & Democracy".
OTW
Over the Weekend, Archana and I participated in BrownTown Ultra organised by PeeranCheruvu Runners and Brown Town Resorts. Archana completed her maiden 20 miler (32 KM) in her first event in more than 2 years.
Like all the previous running events, this one was made possible by the love and support of the volunteers from PeeranCheruvu Runners and Brown Town Resorts. It is the hard work of volunteers which make it possible for runners to enjoy and more importantly finish the run. It is their selfless service which includes long hours of being in hot sun trying to anticipate the runners’ requirements and at times responding to idiosyncratic demands. They are up and running before the event starts and stay much after to wind up all the event related formalities. Salute to their spirit.
On Independence Day, it is also time to renew our commitment to the spirit of India. Earlier generation have been asked to sacrifice land, resources and even their lives to protect the country but we are just asked to wear a mask and get vaccinated ASAP.
Stay Safe.
I Love You.
Shailendra
OTM
Opportunities through MountainSpeak provides networking to readers for career advice and job/internship openings.
On Sunday evening, I had an interesting guest for the month’s MountainSpeak session when Col Sukhchain Singh joined us to share his life experiences of Indian Army and now Indian Corporate. Amongst the many things that Col Sukhchain does, he also finds time to run long distance and is an inspiration to many aspiring runners in twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad & beyond. One of the insights I could glean was the similarity between corporate career and training for long distance running especially in terms of perseverance and preparation.
You could connect with him on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram or even his blog http://sukhirunning.blogspot.com/2016/
You could watch the full video of our interaction at this link.
One of the guests and my mentor Dr Sharda Nayak commented (Watch at 53:30 time stamp her comments on leadership as summary of Sukhchain’s Leadership’s Insights) on the need for maintaining hope in these difficult times. You could read more about her recollection of events in Indian Parliament when India became free on 15th August 1947 in her Facebook post.
About MountainSpeak
MountainSpeak is a Free-Form Conversation Style Platform for exchanging ideas about Multi-sided Networks, Business , Marketing , Endurance Running and Life in general !
We meet once a Month- Every Second Sunday from 7 PM-8 PM. If you would like to invite an acquaintance, please ask them to fill this google form https://forms.gle/5vM78Az4ADS81ENk9
They would receive a virtual platform invite and could join in using the personal link.