16th June 2019
Dear Reader,
It is now a well-worn cliché to say that we live in an age of unparalleled technological development which is fundamentally transforming all aspects of human society. However, these changes will not be uniform. India especially, given its unique social, political, and economic challenges, will be affected in unexpected, interesting ways that will be of importance not only for Indian policymakers but also the global tech community.
There is a new generation of journalists and reporters documenting these changes but keeping track of their individual work across platforms can be difficult. This is where we come in. Our idea is simple- find the best articles of the week that bring out the human aspect of rapid tech adoption in India and bring them under one roof in the form of a newsletter. This might include anything from discussions of new policies to a 101 on the latest meme culture in the country.
The content will necessarily be eclectic and sometimes weird, as is natural when talking about a country as diverse as India. What it will not be is standard start-up news regarding funding rounds, acquisitions, and collapses, unless such news also talks about how these events have an impact on society or politics. But it will be fun and most importantly, informative. We will send out the newsletter every Sunday, topped with our own brief comments.
As Indian society undergoes a digital transformation, we will help you keep track of what promises to be a wild and eventful journey. Welcome to the Digital Republic.
If you like what we have to offer, please do subscribe to our weekly newsletter below.
India: Democracy or Datacrazy?
In the tech world, India is many things. Provider of skilled labour. Ground zero for the battle between the American and Chinese tech ecosystems. The largest potential open digital market. Eager adopter of new technologies. But what does this mean for India itself? What does it mean for Indian democracy? As a primary target on the global tech giants, it seems natural that India would be in the frontline for the uneasy relationship between big tech and democracy.
The Internet Giveth, And the Internet Taketh Away
In September 2018, All India Bakchod (AIB) was India’s edgiest, most sought after comedy collective, which was part funny and part weird (Remember this?). It was supposed to be the irreverent, woke voice of a new generation of urban Indians. By the end of October however, AIB was relegated to the pages of virtual history. Its meteoric rise can be attributed to the creative freedom offered by platforms like YouTube. Its fall came about in the midst of the #MeToo movement that hit India in 2018, which itself arose because of Twitter. AIB’s story, therefore, is in many ways a chronicle of the #MeToo movement in a microcosm. It is also a tale of how the internet made a new generation of cultural entrepreneurs and knocked them off their pedestal.
+ Ankur Pathak in Huffpost India
Is the Clock Ticking for Tik Tok in India?
The pop-philosophical group Nickelback once crooned that “we all just wanna be big rockstars and live in hilltop houses driving fifteen cars”. For most people this just a dream. But in India, apps like Tik Tok have paved the way for ordinary users to become celebrities overnight. Its allure has brought over a million teens and twenty-year-olds to upload content daily on its platform. The constant attention that is needed to fuel the Tik Tok celebrity culture often results in Tik Tok stars performing irrational antics and opening up their personal lives for the entertainment of others. Maybe this doesn’t seem to be a big deal for a lot of us who are used to such a celebrity culture on platforms like Instagram (there is also something to be said about the differing socio-economic profiles of the primary users of Instagram and Tik Tok in India), but there are rather drastic consequences for the unfortunate few. This is the story of Tik Tok and its connection to two murders in New Delhi.
+ Snigdha Poonam in Hindustan Times
It’s Time Facebook Faces the Facts
Over the last year or so, Facebook has come under a lot of flak for a whole host of issues. And while it does seem to be trying to respond positively to these issues, in India, Facebook’s largest market, it seems to have hit an unprecedented problem- sheer linguistic diversity. In India, the social media giant is unable to remove anti-LGBTQ+, anti-Muslim and pro-extremists opinions swiftly or effectively, and is having an especially hard time eliminating hate speech and misinformation in non-English languages. If you’re reading this and are of the opinion, “let’s give them a break, it’s a hard task to sift through so much content” then on any other day we would agree with you, but this week, civil rights activists have called FB out on their lax attitude towards solving this issue. Equality Labs (a South Asian American advocacy group) revealed that 93% of the posts it reported to Facebook that contained speech violating FB’s own rules still remain on the platform. Given the political clout of misinformation plaguing the country, it’s high time we sought a novel way to tackle this issue, in a systematic manner that takes into account the linguistic context of these posts. Although FB arguably might be trying its best to solve a rather difficult issue, there is more to be done, by them, us and the state.
+ Megha Rajagopalan in Buzzfeed News
No Country for Violent Videogames?
India never really had much of a mass gaming scene. Internet connection was fairly spotty until recently, and most games and platforms were priced out of the range of the average Indian. That is until the mobile revolution and the availability of cheap, fast data. Now mobile gaming is everywhere and no game is more ubiquitous than PUBG. The first-person shooter has become a pop cultural phenomenon. There are PUBG themed restaurants, PUBG parties, and campus competitions. As can be expected however there has been a significant backlash against the game, with concerns expressed regarding its effect on teenagers. Whatever such concerns however ideally no democratic country should ban a game or jail people for playing it. Unless of course, the country is India. The fascinating, weird, and scary story of the boys who were jailed for playing a game. ngl.
