You must have heard the name of the demon ‘Bhasmasura’. Bhasmasura was a demon who earned a boon from Lord Shiva that whoever lay their hand on his head, should be consumed. Later Bhasmasura misused this power and he tried to burn Lord Shiva himself. Although the story is mentioned in Hindu mythology, do you know that ‘Bhasmasura’ is still alive among us?
For the last few years, foreign social media and microblogging apps used in our country are sharing among themselves user data from India for commercial gain and auctioning in the International market for their profit. These exotic microblogging apps are the bane of the modern age. They have the boon of your data and these app companies are using your data against you and giving birth to a new kind of digital colonialism.
Today digital colonialism is being carried out by global social and microblogging app companies. Through the data of the consumers, these companies understand their search patterns, and through this algorithm use this data of the consumer to fulfil their interests or auction them in the International market. These companies also provide some free facilities to the consumers, so that the use of the company’s service becomes a habit and then a compulsion for the consumer.
If we explore India’s colonisation methods by the East India Company, it will be known that this company first came to India for trade. When the trade was established, the Company became financially strong, and later it used its military to establish dominance with a monopoly. And then gradually the company ruled the whole country. In the meantime, people were also provided with facilities like education and railways, so people continued to consider this control of the company in their interest. It took a long time for people to believe that they were citizens of a slave country. Later, feelings like Swaraj and Swadeshi were awakened in the country and our entire freedom struggle was recorded in the pages of history. No one can understand the lessons learned from the East India Company better than in India. The modern era of social and microblogging apps are also taking their digital colonialism throughout the world through the internet and are slowly capturing your thoughts through your mobile phone.
After the end of World War II, Winston Churchill said at Harvard University that “the empires of the future will be the kingdoms of the mind”. This statement of Churchill is being realized today after looking at these new platforms.
Does your mobile spy on you? This question must have come to your mind several times. What you are saying, what are you listening to, what are you watching from your mobile? There is someone who is monitoring these activities of yours. For example, if you have to get admission of your child to a private university or your hair is falling fast or you have to buy a mobile and you asked a friend about all these, you will see that after a few hours advertisements related to this information will start appearing on your screen. So the question arises who is he/she? who is spying on this information of yours? How do search engines know what’s going on in your brain?
On 29 June 2021, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology convened a meeting on the misuse of social media platforms in which the members of the committee raised the question of whether Google was listening to us? In response to the committee’s question, the Google representative admitted that yes Google does listen to a few things.
THE THREAT LOOMING LARGE
If we look at the risks of digital colonialism, it is the theft of intellectual property as it allows easy access to communication. The second risk is related to national security. Because the country’s strategists, leaders, and army officers are sharing data on these platforms and discussing strategies and plans. Its biggest risk is related to religion, this will make foreigners come to know about the religious weakness of the country. They will learn about the trends of people of different religions so that they can implement dangerous tactics like spreading false news and promoting religious fanaticism.
INDIA’S CHALLENGES IN DIGITAL COLONIZATION
Local languages extinction: The Internet is dominated by the English language which is making the local languages slowly disappear. The main reason for this is the availability of content in English on the Internet. Countries like Japan and China have largely conquered the situation. There is a severe lack of adequate infrastructure for the collection and management of data in India which has to be filled. There is also the issue of data security in our country, we will have to take the necessary steps to solve it. There is also a lack of digital literacy in our country. At the same time, there is also a lack of a strict law regarding data protection in India.
How can digital colonialism be stopped in India? Our mind is being controlled through digital colonialism. Now we have to face this fight. There can be four effective models of preventing digital colonialism in India.
The first model: The creation of strict laws like the European Union; if a company collects the data of the people of Europe, it has to follow the strict rules there. Companies violating these rules can be fined up to 4 per cent of their earnings. The European Union has also imposed a fine of about 70 thousand crore rupees on Google since the year 2017. A penalty of Rs 890 crore was also imposed on Facebook and these companies are scared of these fines. Users in Europe can demand the destruction of their data whenever they want.
The second model: China to stop the bullying of microblogging apps companies; China has not allowed foreign companies to enter its technology industry. According to their law, the data of the people of China cannot be stored abroad. Under this rule, companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter were blocked in China. The local companies got the full benefit of this effective move of China. These companies understand China’s civilization and culture very well. Now it has reached the global level and due to the laws there, the data of the citizens of China are safe within their country only.
The third model: America tried to implement the third model of avoiding digital colonialism; Trump put pressure on Tiktok so that the owner would sell his company to a big technology company in America. This was done so that the data of the people of America present with Tiktok is safe in the US itself.
The fourth model: We have to create Indian champions of tech knowledge. The promotion of the indigenous apps like ‘Koo App’, ‘Chingari’ etc. as an alternative to the foreign microblogging app Twitter can be a good example of this. Today, the native app ‘Koo App’, operating on the lines of self-reliant India (Atmanirbhar Bharat), is available in regional languages, using which we can avoid such problems. ‘Koo App’ has been launched as a multilingual, micro-blogging platform for Indian languages, to enable Indians to express themselves in their mother tongue.
Now is the time to become aware of our digital identity and the future of our generation. If India does not take concrete steps on digital colonialism soon, we will have to face dire consequences in the future. The data of millions of our people will go to micro-blogging platforms, whose sole goal is to make money by using it for commercial purposes or selling it. No such platform in this country should have such a discount that it collects your information and converts it into a profit of lakhs and crores of rupees by giving you free service.
Today our government and we need to avoid using microblogging apps operating from abroad as well as promote indigenously made microblogging apps under self-reliant India.
For the last few years, foreign social media and microblogging apps used in our country are sharing among themselves user data from India for commercial gain and auctioning in the International market for their profit.