25th June 2019
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the second edition of the Digital Republic. General conversations about tech seem to implicitly equate the term ‘tech’ with digital technologies and internet driven products. We too have fallen prey to this implicit bias, as can be seen from our name. Such equivalence, however, is an issue because ‘tech’ can be digital or physical and need not necessarily be associated with the glamour of Silicon Valley. There is an entire world of tech development beyond the digital realm, and while we still call ourselves the Digital Republic, we also aim to bring stories about such tech to the fore.
In keeping with this aim, we have an eclectic collection of articles in this edition. There is a very interesting piece about how the introduction of mechanized sewage cleaning machines in Delhi have begun changing the lives of workers for whom every day brought with it the prospect of death. Another article looks at the renewed debate over cultivation of GM crops in India, and why some farmer organizations are agitating for it. There are articles that look at the Government of India’s latest attempt to bypass WhatsApp’s encryption for traceablity, and the Competition Commission of India’s decision to investigate Google for abuse of dominance in the smartphone market. Uber’s decision to launch a 24x7 helpline is covered, as is an interesting opinion piece by Amber Sinha on the various categories of misinformation. And finally, we have Pranav Dixit’s fascinating study of Indians obsessing over foreigners reacting to Indian videos on YouTube.
Do check us out on Twitter and Medium and let us know what you thought of this week’s collection. Any feedback will only help us get better. If you would like to have our newsletter sent straight to your inbox once a week, please click on the box below
Tug of War — Privacy Vs. Accountability?
A family WhatsApp group is incomplete without a daily supply of generic ‘good morning’ message to wake up to each day. We don’t know their origin, we don’t know their final destination, but we do know that WhatsApp forwards spread like wildfire. The last few years in India have seen misleading forwards spreading around so swiftly that law enforcement agencies are left with little to no time to react. Sometimes, the consequences can be fatal. As with great power comes great responsibility, the head company, Facebook, is finding it tough to come up with an ethical stance on the issue. On one end, the government is rightfully seeking traceability measures to ensure that the ones responsible are held accountable. On the other, social activists are concerned about traceability being misused for state surveillance. Most recently, the Indian government has asked WhatsApp to digitally fingerprint each message without hampering their encryption. Not to anyone’s surprise, there’s an ongoing battle between accountability (through surveillance) and privacy while WhatsApp is bang in the middle. Where do you stand on this issue?
+ Megha Mandavia in the Economic Times
Technology and Human Dignity
Of all the inequities that have persisted in modern India, manual scavenging is one of the most shameful. Not only is the work demeaning, it is also deadly. Every month there are reports of sewage workers dying in the line of work. This is compounded by the inequities of caste, with Dalits (the former untouchable castes) bearing an unequal burden of doing such work and the associated fatalities. While India needs to go through with its incomplete social revolution to fully get rid of this issue in the long-term, could tech provide a short-term solution? The government of Delhi recently introduced mechanized sewage cleaning machines to help with this issue. Mallica Joshi, in The Indian Express, explores what this means for the sewage workers, their families and for Dalit empowerment. It must be remembered though that Delhi is only the second Indian city to make a complete switch to mechanized sewage cleaning. Almost all the others (including the tech capital of Bangalore) are dependent on human labour. The winds of change blow very slowly indeed.
+ Mallica Joshi in The Indian Express
The Right to Grow
GM crops have been at the center of raging debates for over two decades. In many ways, these debates are reflective of the deep discomfort many people have with widespread adoption of new technologies. In India, the question of GM crops came into public consciousness with the issue of Bt. Brinjal, which the government of India banned from cultivation. Unfortunately, the debate over GM crops seems to have less to do with scientific facts and more to do with hysteria. There is no proof that GM crops are anymore harmful to humans than existing crop varieties, and opponents of GM crops, while well-intentioned, end up harming the farmers’ cause. Most GM crops require less economic inputs, and are more resistant to pests, making them more profitable for farmers to cultivate. Now, it seems the farmers are fighting back and agitating for their right to plant newer varieties of crops, even if they are GM. As they should. The inability to objectively weigh the benefits of GM cropping is not only a stand against scientific progress, it could also severely impede the future food security of 1.5 billion Indians.
Safety First!
Remember those long, monotonous caller tunes that never seemed to end while we’re waiting to talk to a customer service agent? Although they still continue to test our patience, there is some comfort in knowing that is at the end of the line. Somethings cannot be solved solely with automation, as Uber has learnt this past week. Through user feedback, the company realised that its callback feature was not enough to safeguard their passengers or drivers. As a result, the company is now testing a 24x7 helpline as a replacement. Similarly, Ola has been working towards enhancing user safety since late 2018 using their real-time customer ride monitoring system — ‘Guardian’. Most of you might be thinking that this human intervention should have come into effect years ago. Well, you’re right. Nonetheless, it’s refreshing to see the big companies prioritizing our safety over all else (hopefully).
In Search of Competition
There is increasing wariness across the world about the activities of the tech giants, including the effects of their dominance on digital markets. A number of jurisdictions have begun proceedings against Google for alleged anti-competitive actions. The Competition Commission of India too has decided to investigate accusations of abuse of dominance against Google (specifically its Android OS), in the smartphone market. This is not the first time that the CCI has taken up a case against Google. A few years back, the Commission fined Google INR 135.86 Crores (INR 1.3 billion) for abusing the market dominance of its search engine. And it is highly likely that this will not be the last such case we see coming out of India. But such cases bring a very interesting legal point, how would one, and should one, regulate digital monopolies? And what are the policy trade-offs inherent in such regulation? There is no correct answer yet, but it might be interesting to see the path Indian regulators choose to take.
WTF is “Fake News”?
In India, “fake news” has sparked countless arguments from dinner table conversations, all the way up, till parliamentary debates. We hear about it, we see it, we experience its consequences and unfortunately, we sometimes engage with it. Yet, we struggle to agree upon a single definition for the term. It isn’t an easy job to categorize misinformation. Its form and content are always in flux, often varying according to the type of misinformation — text, images, videos or memes. Although it is a daunting task, dissecting the various characteristics of “fake news” could be a much needed stepping stone in creating necessary legal frameworks against misleading information. As a result, Amber Sinha attempts to peel the multiple layers that make up “Fake news” to find structure in the chaotic semantics of “fake news”.
React to This…
What do Indians watch on YouTube? Songs, clips, short films, parody videos, re-runs of TV soaps, and…videos of foreigners reacting to Indian videos. Pranav Dixit explores this hilariously unique Indian phenomenon for Buzzfeed. This growing obsession could be reflective of two divergent undercurrents in Indian society. One is the constant need for external validation, the reassurance from people of other countries that India is great and good and fun. This could stem from a colonial hangover that has refused to go away even seventy years after independence. The other undercurrent is the obverse of this. A new-found confidence within India about India and a need to promote India and Indian content to as many people outside the country as possible. Which of the two is more valid? Maybe both are. Maybe neither are. But that is for you to decide. (Warning: Such reaction videos can be very addictive. We know. Trust us).
