‘Big Tech weaponised internet amid conflict, presiding over splinter-net’

Amid the continued “weaponisation” of the web by some Big Tech platforms through the ongoing Russia-Ukraine battle bringing again the concentrate on the sweeping powers of social media platforms, India is readying a brand new cybersecurity and information governance framework.

These actions by Big Tech firms put into perspective and name for a renewed concentrate on an “Atmanirbhar internet” name given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which laid concentrate on decreasing dependency on companies being offered by these international corporations, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated.

Citing the instance of some Russian banks and their subsidiaries being banned from the worldwide SWIFT community, the minister stated it was because of the focus of the federal government’s self-build initiatives that the nation now had options to those international preparations if India ever discovered itself in an analogous place.

“If we were depending on SWIFT alone, we are gone. But we have UPI, fintech platforms in India that have reduced our reliance on a SWIFT type of an international money transfer platform. We are seeing through our thinking of Atmanirbhar Bharat that we should not depend on Indian internet being controlled or influenced by these big tech platforms alone,” Chandrasekhar stated.

Such actions by firms, nations and large tech platforms, which have taken “positions that are very partisan”, are leading to a “splinter-net”, he added.

“Two phenomenon are very visible: one is weaponisation of the internet of which we were aware of in some sense. The second is the phenomenon of the splinter-net. The internet is increasingly being splintered, driven by power of some Western countries. These platforms have now become dominant and in the event of a conflict between two sovereigns, they are being weaponised and there are no laws that would prevent this.,” Chandrasekhar stated.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine started on February 24, firms, nations, Big Tech platforms and intermediaries have introduced a slew of sanctions which have both stopped or minimize off companies being offered by them to Russia and its residents. Some of those measures embody stoppage of cost companies, refusal by intermediaries to function in Russia and never permitting their residents to submit.

“It is disturbing that internet intermediaries aren’t doing enough to combat cybercrime and hacking attacks. The use of sanctions to cut off access to internet is disturbing. It is quite a troubling precedent. These recent events strengthen India’s case for data localisation, national champions, resilient internet network architecture, native open APIs (application programming interface) and a strong cyber security command centre,” Chandrasekhar advised The Indian Express.

“It is validating our thinking in terms of a new digital law, the need for a data governance framework. We will basically create a framework which will have the data protection law, a digital law and other cyber security statutes. Architecturally, we want to build the cyberspace jurisprudence rather than doing it piecemeal or in catch up mode,” he added.

The actions by Big Tech firms and intermediaries additionally violate fundamental rules of web neutrality and fundamental thought of openness of web as they’ve now grow to be “gatekeepers”, he stated.

“The platforms are now controlling the access to the internet in many ways, be it through monopolies of search engines, duopolies of app stores, or devices.”

In 2015, Chandrasekhar had written to then telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, urging him that the telecom ministry committee, which was then fashioned to look into the Net Neutrality difficulty, should take a “holistic 360 degree approach” earlier than coming to any closing conclusion on the matter.

Earlier in 2013, it was on Chandrasekhar’s public curiosity litigation that the Supreme Court had struck down part 66A of the Information Technology Act.

These Big Tech firms, which initially rallied on authorities assist to grow to be the behemoths that they’re in the present day, are actually presiding over splinter-net and the balkanisation of web by imposing sanctions on nations, he additional stated.