Between California & China

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Between California & China

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• India and Big Tech regulation: Quite possibly, govt. may bring new regulations to oversee Big Tech firms in India. Countries worldwide are struggling with the power of Big Tech. There are basically two models of internet - the libertarian model of USA, and the authoritarian model of China. The first is facing internal contradictions, and the second is growing stronger daily.
• Californian Libertarian model: There are many problems.

1. Big Tech firms grew beyond being platforms, and began generating own content too. So, a conflict of interest. 
2. Then there was the monopoly power problem. Their rising valuations forced them to get more and more market power (rent extraction) to justify it. So the culture of free competition and free expression goes directly against the business model.
3. Their algorithms are not accountable to anyone. They create a black box society. 
4. These companies helped many firms grow, and ended up destroying many others. News business suffered hugely. 
5. They now think they are sovereigns unto themselves. Their regulation of free speech in arbitrary manner proves it. Example - the blocking of President Trump when he was on his way out (not earlier). Another example - Facebook's behaviour in Australia. 
6. Big Tech is deeply impacting democracy and democratisation itself. 

• The moral question: The entire California Libertarianism stood on the moral bedrock of promise of democratic empowerment. Then, democracies started getting more and more polarised. Information was manipulated. It is possible that a Quad may be formed against Big Tech, to battle both Californian and Chinese models.
• Strange things: Poland, a nation growing more authoritarian, has a law that prevents media from censoring tweets. India will also use some pretexts, for both good and bad, pro- and anti-regime. India will also push for creation of its own internet firms now, due to the massive size of the market. 
• Atmanirbhar Bharat: Present govt. is serious about pushing own brands, and not US brands. India will refer to China, which closed itself to foreign internet brands. Note that Indian big businesses do not want more innovation, but more regulation (so new entrants are kept out). Present govt. was friendly to foreign Big Tech as long as its own information flows were never hindered, but not any more! If only Indian firms run internet giants here, govt. can totally control them.
• New regulations: So when India builds new regulations, will it be to foster more democracy and more competition, or to build pro-government monopolies?
• The key issues: The biggest values for India should be end of crony capitalism, pushing for more liberty, and investment in science to solve real problems, and freedom of institutions. India must learn from the state of its TV news, which is anything but free. If India moves away from Californian Libertarianism, only to slip into Chinese Authoritarianis, it'd be a bad idea.

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