Tech-n-Granted?

Tech-n-Politics :: Battleground India, Managed by REMOTE
11 February 2019 

India witnessed two significant incidents last week, involving two American Tech firms - WhatsApp (FB) and Twitter. These are two separate companies, two separate incidents, however, one thing was common - an "extra-ordinarily hardened" stance against the Indian systems - parliamentary and lawmakers.

Social Media
Social media can be a useful tool for individuals,governments, businesses, bringing advantages such as connecting, engaging and collaborating with audience. However there can also be disadvantages, including the resources required and negative feedback.
Just like anything which can be used for both good and bad, social media have also provided the negative and positive ways for the people.
 

How Social are we?
Out of the 7.2 billion global population, approx 4.1 billion is said to be digitally connected. The growth is highest among social media users. Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Insta, Snap, Pinterest, YouTube, WeChat are leading channels of socializing.

Where is India?
Digital growth has been somewhat secular in India - so to say. In India it is said that some 300 million users are active of social media networks.

The mutation effect 
Firstly, It is important to note the amazing improvements in the speed of circulation though. I mean, have you ever observed the speed at which a forward message reaches you from multiple sources, that too ""completely unrelated". Earlier the circulation time was high, but now it appears that it is instantly shared across demographies, geographies.


WhatsApp and the confusion of "Control"

Facebook owned Instant messaging platform WhatsApp has 275-300 million active users in India. While the messaging platform is free as of now, it would be foolish to imagine that the company makes no money from these gullible users, including me. This comes through cross selling and sharing of information, which nobody will accept openly.

• WhatsApp for Business APIs debuted with companies such as MakeMyTrip, Zendesk and 1mg. I have the first hand experience of Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip and several others.

• With location sharing data, 60 billion messages sent per day, and access to users' entire contact lists, Facebook has access to a ton of personal information – all uploaded and saved on its servers. 

• Though WhatsApp's financial statements aren't public (Facebook doesn't break down its revenue by company), Forbes estimated total revenue to be $5 billion and the average revenue per user to be $4 by 2020. As of February 2018, WhatsApp had over 1.5 billion users and sees 60 billion messages sent per day.

Okay, this may be questionable. So what NEW issues WA has in India?

Let's have a quick look at them separately.

1. WA's global communication head, Carl Woog warned Indian Political parties to fall in line. Carl Woog (Global Head Communications and PR ) "announced" just a few days before "We have seen a number of parties attempt to use Whatsapp in a way that was not intended and our firm message to them is using it in that way will result in bans of our service".
2. One of TDP's MLA's WhatsApp account has been "frozen" by WhatsApp. Now, the lawmaker, very naturally alleged that the central government was "behind" this arrangement! Isn't this ironical that on one hand WA asks the political parties to fall in line, and on the other hand one lawmaker's account gets banned.
3. WA says it wont increase the limit of forwards for India. WA, long ago introduced limit to forwarding messages, five users at a time. The company packaged it to look Innocuous , and also with a  "genuine" attempt to control the "blast" effects of forwards in the event of untoward incidents. But the finer prints tell some other things. 

Points to Ponder - 

• Is WA really "controllable"  by Indian system or lawmakers? Does not appear to be so, because it has blatantly opposed the idea of Indian law making agencies for inserting their (Indian) API's to seek the origin of a message.
• Who is controlling whom? Is it a typical "double cross" situation? 
• Globally, WA has set this limit of forwards to 20 uaers- then why is it, one-fourth of that in India, despite of drawing such a huge subscriber base?  
• Was it really to delay the circulation time or to "harden" posture against Indian law makers?

In this the news of Facebook's plan to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger has more relevance than it appears to be. The integration will allow cross platform messaging and end-to-end encryption on all three. It makes Facebook's control over WhatsApp and Instagram data all the more evident. 

It appears that the aim is to cushion Facebook revenues with WhatsApp and Instagram. The two have done well in the recent past with a steady increase in the user base, whereas Facebook lost 3 million users in Europe alone (and about $120 billion in market value) after the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

Uncontrollable "Twitter"
Sometime in the last week of November 2018, Twitter's global CEO Jack Dorsey descended to India. He had "fruitful" meetings with PM Modi and HH Dalai Lama. He also met several of his "Indian" friends including a key opposition leader (reportedly, happily discussing his famous "tattoos"). 

Following these meetings, Jack also had a "close door" discussion with "so called" open and liberal professionals, including journalists, writers, and activists. After that, Jack was photographed holding a poster that read, "Smash Brahminical patriarchy".

By the same evening, the Twitter India handle defended itself, stating, 

• "Recently, we hosted a closed-door discussion with a group of women journalists and change-makers from India to better understand their experience using Twitter. One of the participants, a Dalit activist, shared her personal experiences and gifted a poster to Jack."
• Twitter called the effort as a "tangible reflection of our company's efforts to see, hear, and understand all sides of important public conversations that happen on our service around the world". 
• CEO's team and Company's legal head gave some laughable excuses - including that the CEO wasn't really aware what the poster meant (even though it was in pure English).
  

 

Further events

• One thing was clear: India has to do more like the US to wield the big stick and get social media giants take the country seriously when it comes to foreign interference or spread of fake news on their platforms.
• Taking a serious note of this incident, the central government issued notice to Twitter to appear before an Indian parliamentary panel on Feb 11 to address similar allegations about the presence of political bias on its platform.
• The CEO of Twitter and other top officials were summoned to appear before it by February 15 over "safeguarding citizens' rights" on social media.
• In a surprising development, instead of the CEO, representatives from Twitter India reached the parliament annex on Feb 11, to attend the panel's scheduled meeting. 

Points to Ponder

• Would Twitter dare to indulge in such "acts (backed by some lame duck excuses)" and misdemeanors elsewhere in the world? 
• Particularity, when it comes to religious and ethnical identities? 
• Does the company truly respect the sanctity of lawmakers of India? 

Not "So cool" 
This controversy of Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey in India could well have been avoided by his over-zealous and ill informed team - just if one wants to give him a benefit of doubt.

However, should this be a calculated step, he is "not cool" in brandishing a divisive poster. He would have been in tatters or termed "blasphemous" had he dared such a mis-adventure in any Middle Eastern or some western countries. He could easily afford to be more "central" than leaning on "agenda" based groups or individuals.

ET-tu-Google?

Google is known for creating and dedicating doodles (artwork) on significant days of a particular market. This creative is based on main themes and personalities of that market. Last year, Google indulged in its "taste of divisive" game when it dedicated its doodle to a hindi film personality, whereas that particular day was a very significant and "sacred" day for an ethnically significant group!!

Secondly, try searching Google images for word "Hindutva". Don't be surprised if you are served with highly insinuating or scary images. One wonders, When and how did the imagery of "Hindutva" become like, an angry man holding trishul (dagger) and yearning for somebody's blood? Or how is "Hindutva" linked with the forbidden "German Swastika" symbol?


This is not about "right wing" thinking. It is about being fact-ful and correct and mindful. 

Signing Off. 

This whole phenomenon is quite interesting because they are precipitating fast before the much awaited, and much crucial (even for foreign governments, investor groups, International markets and communities) general elections in India. 

Interestingly, all these tech-giants have 

• Huge subscriber base in India
• Huge active users and usages in India - across markets, demographies
• Positive brand equity in India

...but, surprisingly they have

• No controlling or accountable authority in India
• No "responsibility" to "local mis-deeds"
• All controls are with parent organizations.

Why? 

• Maybe now, regarding India  they are not that confident that it will be "a cakewalk for an expat" to "make friendly exits in case of any law-breaking incidents" like W Anderson of Union Carbide or Kim Davey of Purulia arms drop case or 2 Italian Marines?

And still 

• They can "afford" to adopt extreme hard postures against local government 
• Treat law of the land lightly 
• Mistaking their market leadership for their "right" to toying with sovereignty of a country 

Can they dare to Repeat such a case in markets like 

• Europe, or
• any West or Mid-East Asian countries 

This is very intriguing when all the major global economies are looking inward, putting stringent data protection norms on these firms, however, these firms could  "afford" to adopt an "extra ordinarily hardened" stance and exert "pressure" in India, and still mighty confident of "getting away"? 

Is it because they feel they have "good" friends in India who can even dare to tell the apex court "इतनी भी क्या जल्दी है" (What is the hurry)?

This situation leads me to think, "ये क्या हो रहा है भाई ?".  

Let us not mix this with patriotism,but the fact remains that all this must be regulated.

It is high time that these tech giants refresh their "loose minds ", review their "corporate brief" and play their role in a fair, and constructive manner, respecting law of the land. And exist as a "good tech" company rather than an opinion maker or "wheeler dealer". 

A case of "misinterpretation of  "rights", misplaced priorities, Exceeding the Brief, or another case of pure misuse of "Indian freedom of expression"?

Time will only tell this. कालाय तस्मै नमः||

Till then, happy WhatsApping and Tweeting - but with care!! 

- Dhananjay M Deshmukh 

Note - All graphics for information purpose. RM and TM acknowledged.