After getting a rap on the knuckle by the Union government, the microblogging platform Twitter is mending its ways. The Jack Dorsey led platform on Friday banned ‘most’ of the accounts listed by India. India had sent a list of 257 accounts on 31st January and 1178 Pak-Khalistani accounts on 4th February. In what can be termed as a change in tactics by the government, the Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday in the Upper House of the Parliament openly called out Twitter for its blatant hypocrisy citing the Capitol Hill situation vis-a-vis the Red Fort siege.
Twitter has blocked most of accounts listed by India. India had sent 257 list on 31st Jan, 1178 Pak-Khalistani accounts sent on 4th Feb.
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) February 12, 2021
“During Capitol Hill, you stand with the police action and in violence at Red Fort, you take a different stand,” stated the Minister.
Prasad took a firmer stance where he iterated that all the big techs need to conform and abide by the Indian constitution and laws of India. “We have immense respect for social media as it has empowered the citizens but today I want to clearly state that be it Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp they are free to work in India but they need to abide by the Constitution of India and laws of India,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad.
https://twitter.com/rsprasad/status/1359774745789485068?s=20
The Modi government has proved that it will not succumb to the autocracy of the Big Tech and unlike Donald Trump, will try to keep this monster under check. Firstly, with the digital strike on Chinese espionage apps — the Modi government had sent an indirect message to the unholy trifecta of Twitter, Google, and Facebook that if these companies did not bring a marked change in the way they operate then the Union government will be left with no alternative but to bring the hammer on it.
However, the entire Twitter saga and the position of the centre must have put Google, Facebook, and other internet giants in an uncomfortable position, for the centre never came this aggressively against anyone of it.
Facebook, which blows its own bugle saying it has brought the world together by connecting friends and families together, has obvious and glaring chinks in its armor. Mark Zuckerberg led Facebook has come under increasing pressure to do much more to combat state and political groups using its platforms to spread false and misleading information.
Facebook and its related entity WhatsApp are attributed to spreading most of the fake news that traverses the modern cyber-world. In the Indian context, this problem has become even gargantuan. The ideological bias is still prominent in Facebook where the conservative voices are more often than stifled.
Read more: ‘Play nice or get banned,’ Modi Govt has also sent a tough message to Facebook, Google and Twitter
Google, the largest search engine in the world has been time and again criticized for harvesting outrageous amounts of user data for selling advertisements. Reported by TFI, Google had even deleted 7 million negative reviews for TikTok so that the Chinese app could get its old ratings back. However, with PM Modi and his government booting out the Chinese app in its entirety, Google’s last-ditch attempt did not pay any dividends.
Facebook and Google are certainly going to lock horns with the government in the near future as the centre is planning to bring the Personal Data Protection Bill which is currently under deliberation by a JPC headed by MP Meenakshi Lekhi. The draft of the bill talks about employing stringent rules on storing personal as well as financial data within India and a proposal to make technology intermediaries more accountable for content posted on them. The bill also states of creating a Data Protection Authority of India (DPAI) to regulate these Big Techs.
Facebook and Google have openly stated that they are against the idea of storing their data in India as it will set a precedent for other countries to follow. However, going by the current scenario, it looks highly unlikely that the government will be buying this demand of the Silicon valley.
The message is clear for the likes of Twitter, Facebook, and Google – play by the rulebook enshrined in the Indian constitution, do away with the partishanship, censoring of content that adheres to an opposite political spectrum or don’t do any of the above and risk getting banned from the country. Enough instances have proven that the Modi government will not waste a heartbeat if the Big Techs do not fall in line.