What's Up, India ?
Overwhelmed to receive hundreds of messages, calls and social media posts on my 45th Birthday. I am blessed to have all of you in my life. As I grow older, I have started counting my blessings more and fondly remember our interactions.
Thanks for your love.
DTW
During the Week, United States Government Department of Justice (US DoJ )and Attorney Generals of about 18 US states filed an anti trust lawsuit against Google for harming competition in internet search and search advertising through distribution agreements. This is interesting because many experts including exiled NSA contractor Edward Snowden have believed that there is a collusion between US government and US tech giants like Google in running a massive data collection and analytics drive for years now. When we look at large platforms and countries , we might see a deep engagement related to commerce, cultural hegemony and geo-political power.
Relationship between platforms and countries 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.
Platforms have become supranational and have achieved scale unimaginable in recent human memory. According to the chart reproduced below from Statista, top three social media platforms individually have number of users higher than the world’s most populous country China even when they do not operate in China.
History textbooks in Indian school talk about British Empire where the Sun never set and in modern times, we have the tech giants which operate across all time zones. It points to the extraordinary reach of the modern tech monopolies when they are facing government actions/scrutiny right from Australia to US with major counties like India and EU contemplating punitive action. There have been reports of tech platforms like Facebook and Google being weaponised across developed and developing countries alike.
Platforms acquiring National Identities or somewhat leveraging on national aspiration in another development which deserves our attention. Whether it is Great Firewall of China which prevents non-Chinese internet companies from operating in China or the recent controversy of forced selling of TikTok assets in US for being too-Chinese. Even in India, we have had multiple attempts to develop an Indian Ecosystem Platform for payments, social media and e-commerce. Digital India AatmaNirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge was an attempt to identify the best Indian Apps that are already being used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become world class Apps in their respective categories.
PayTM has tried to leverage on the recent controversy about PayTM ban from play store and subsequent “Google 30% Tax” to mobilise public support for an homegrown Indian appstore rivalling both Playstore by Google and iOS AppStore by Apple. Of course, they pointed to their Android Mini App Store to support Indian developers to take their innovative products to the masses.
Third facet of this relationship deals with platforms as tools of nation state. This is at the heart of TikTok controversy where both the Indian and US governments feel that the Chinese government controls the algorithm and may leverage the citizens’ information for geo-strategic purpose and hence needs to be dealt severely including cessation of operations. All tech platforms used publicly funded technology infrastructure like internet and GPS to develop their ecosystem. Many of these platforms are now being used against nation states by bad actors both within the countries as well as foreign powers thus threatening national sovereignty. Complaints of Russia and Iranian attempts to malign US elections process using tech platforms have raised call for more regulation of these platforms from undermining democratic process. We could also see Nations transforming themselves as platforms to deal with power of multinational platforms.
Prof Sangeet Paul Chowdhary talks about Singapore's road map in establishing a standard that will involve an adoption strategy with partners, control of unique IP differentiators, and the benefits of a neutral position.
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 !
Platform Skynet looms !
OTW
Over the Weekend, I watched parts of Peepli Live after a discussion about media and its responsibility during my Signature Course on Interface of Marketing and Technology. We were discussing about the recent controversy about TRPs and attempts to defraud brands by manipulating viewers’ data. There is a hilarious but relevant to contemporary media antics scene in the brilliant media satire Peepli Live when a small mela like setting pops up near the village where all the news vans are parked. It is almost like the news event is a platform for businesses and consumers to transact.
Based on multiple feedbacks, I started a new series of industry interactions called 3030 for my MBA students. Idea of 3030 is to bring 90’s born young people (Roaring Nineties) from world of work and education together. This series would bring fresh MBA graduates back to classroom to share their MBA journey and then their education to work transition to prepare the current students who are embarking on an extraordinary journey in these difficult times. Thank you Vasundhara Arora for being the guest in the inaugural episode and Kalyan Kumar Reddy for designing the logo/look for the series.
Brilliant folks at OpenFace Media led by dear friend and media professional par excellence Pavan Atukuri have been running informational videos and other creatives to create awareness during Breast Cancer Awareness Month from 1st October to 31st October. Show some love and spread the word.
I would like to conclude this newsletter edition with feeling of gratitude of what we have and fortitude to endure what’s to come. We could be best version of ourselves in this Covid Pandemic by being caring human beings and responsible citizens.
Wear a Face Mask. Wash Your Hands. Maintain Six Feet Distance.
I Love You
Shailendra
indeed sir platforms were created to connect people and nations but somehow they have been weaponized by companies like cambridge and many more, hope this antitrust hearings and new laws can control the network effect and improve them.
Absolutely Sir, I totally agree with you. Also, we had a healthy discussion about it on ment.io over Facebook’s case study, in which I mentioned that data privacy in this digital era is a myth, it’s breach is not only limited to platforms but extended way far. As, in the trailer attached, they have mentioned that Cambridge Analytica was having 5000 data points per person; and being a formed data scientist, I’m pretty sure it’s way beyond our imagination and once we get to know it our Mind will be blown out. Fuss about data privacy is just a gimmick, as your data is collected by whom, stored at whose location, placed at which server, freely available to whom, and who have the capabilities to utilise it, I’m pretty sure it you (the common folks).
Profound to have a sneaky-peak at the discussion, do check out the link: https://app.ment.io/discussion/9d12efbba3eb437faab5bb9dfa47e9cb?answer=e664c95045594119a0c2e6e5af6585db