Platform and Democracy
Dissent and Democracy Dis-intermediated
Last Wednesday ,I had a Mid Week Bonus Guest Post by my daughter Aru who announced launch of tynkrr - her new Teen Focussed Social Media Platform. One of the reason why she started blogging and eventually thought of starting her own Teen Platform were young activists like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai. More specifically , how both of them wanted to contribute to the civil engagement by young people and how the existing platforms were thwarting their efforts.
Do share information about tynkrr (www.tynkrr.com) with interested teenagers in your family and friends network for some good karma. If you are on Instagram , do follow tynkrr page at https://www.instagram.com/tynkrr_/
And thanks for your kind wishes on her sixteenth birthday. She is grateful for your love and blessings.
DTW
During the Week, President Trump issued an executive order specifically directing ByteDance to destroy all data obtained from US TikTok owners and inform the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US of the progress. Few weeks ago, Indian Central Government had also banned 59 Chinese apps including TikTok over national security concerns. Platforms have been brought to limelight as tools of geopolitics. Democracy and Platforms have an emerging tenuous relationships. Platforms have democratised various facets of our social, economic and political lives. At the same time, they have also afforded extraordinary power to corporations ,political actors and governments to influence public opinion.
Nothing captures this tension than Poster Boy of Social Media Platforms Mark Zuckerberg’s ongoing dilemma. He extols Facebook as Enabling Democracy through ambitious efforts to lift voter participation as well as depicts calls for Facebook to be a more active player in saving democracy as being above their pay grade. In India , Facebook’s multiple campaigns along with Election Commission of India to encourage young voters to register and vote has been hailed as revolutionary but the use of Facebook/WhatsApp as a hate machine by various political parties is also well documented. Prof Scott Galloway calls Twitter and Facebook as “Rage Machines” and asks for their regulation as utilities.
“These platforms have very dangerous profit motives. When you monetize rage at such an exponential rate, it’s bad for the world. These guys don’t look left or right; they just look down. They’re willing to promote white nationalism if there’s money in it. The rise of social media will be seen as directly correlating to the decline of Western civilization.”
Scott Galloway, Professor , NYU
Platforms have also dealt a body blow to the Mass Media and have made them into extreme ideological outposts. Simultaneously , various narratives on and using social media platforms have made press loose its relevance and voice as Fourth Pillar of Democracy. Pressure to trend on social media has put them in a rat race to chase sensational stories and make non-events into events. Though we lost an eminent poet Rahat Indori to Covid19 during the week but his words on media, especially electronic media, capitulation would always ring a bell. The criticism applies equally to social media platforms as well.
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.
At the same time, cancel culture seems to be pushing many voices out of platforms. The hounding, shaming and trolling by determined collective of critics has put people’s reputation and sometimes their livelihood at risk. We are one big Global Village now and traditional practices of हुक्का पानी बन्द (Hukka Paani Bandh) have taken over internet especially social media platforms. Celebrities and academics are often the target of these vicious campaigns especially for their political views. Celebrities might lose out on few endorsement deals but overall do not seem to mind the extra attention. Some of them believe in an age old adage of “there's no such thing as bad publicity” !
हम तालिबे शोहरत हैं हमें नंग से क्या काम
बदनाम अगर होंगे तो क्या नाम न होगा
- - नवाब मोहम्मद मुस्तफ़ा ख़ां शेफ़्ता
Occasionally , Indian companies might release generic political messages on public holidays but usually have steered clear of any political activism in recent past. Global corporations like Nike seems to have mastered the art and science of political activism and others seems to be catching up. Nike ad with Colin Kaepernick was a bold gamble in the face of racial tensions as well as a belligerent US President but they seem to have pulled it off in terms of brand and revenue.
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.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton -"There is nothing wrong with Democracy that cannot be cured by what is right with Democracy" and platforms can surely play a role in this continued evolution and transformation in organisations, society , nations and world.
OTW
Over the Weekend, we celebrated our 74th Independence Day and it was a somber reminder of the difficult days over last 5 months of pandemic. It was subdued but I am sure that few of us would be inspired by the immense struggles and sacrifices by previous generations who made it possible for us to enjoy the fruits of freedom.
कुछ बात है कि हस्ती मिटती नहीं हमारी
सदियों रहा है दुश्मन दौर-ए-ज़माँ हमारा-इकबाल
I feel that the true test of our patriotism right now is our resolve to defeat Covid19 pandemic. And unlike previous generations who were asked to make immense sacrifices including risking their lives, we have been asked to just stay home. Young people have an important role to play in this fight against Covid 19 and I am hopeful that they would rise to the occasion.
We also heard the heartbreaking news of MS Dhoni retiring from International Cricket. Of course, his contribution to Indian Cricket goes beyond just numbers even when his “just numbers” are also extraordinary. I would recommend Numbers Do Lie by Aakash Chopra using Impact Index methodology as an interesting take on cricket statistics and deeper dive into records/mis-records. MSD had the most influence on the matches whether as wicketkeeper, batsman or captain.
And as usual , it was an unusual announcement via a cryptic IGTV Video. I am sure you would have already seen it but watch it again for clarity of thought that we all need about ourselves ! Here are my favourite lines from the immortal song by Sahir Ludhianvi that MSD uses in the farewell video and reminds us about our limited time here and what we are going to do with it.
कल और आएंगे नग़मों की खिलती कलियाँ चुनने वाले मुझसे बेहतर कहने वाले तुमसे बेहतर सुनने वाले
Wash your Hands. Wear a Mask. Keep Six Feet Distance
I Love You.
Shailendra
PS- Had an interesting conversation with Abhishek Punia , Co-Founder and COO of ARM Digital in MountainSpeak Season 3 Episode 3. You could watch the recording here and sign up for the forthcoming episode here.
Platforms usually identify market failure and try to solve it. In India also during the time of the Lok Sabha election people shows their interest in the election at a massive level on Facebook. Due to having a high number of users, any positive or negative message can be easily spread.
Nowadays Tik Tok is very much in news due to the ban in India and now in the USA but other side Reliance Industry is in talks with Bytedance to invest in the Tiktok business in India. It's really interesting to see the next move.