Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar has said that that the technological hegemony of a few Western tech companies such as Twitter, Google, and Facebook* is an emerging issue in global politics.
Speaking during a panel discussion at the opening session of the India Global Forum 2022 in Dubai on Monday, Jaishankar said that the issue could no longer be ignored.
“These are the new issues that are emerging. In the name of narrative setting, political correctness… We can’t keep ducking these issues,” Jaishankar said during a discussion that also featured Anwar Gargash, senior diplomatic advisor to Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Jaishankar said that a big question confronting authorities was whether tech companies have uniform rules when cooperating with different governments on matters related to national security.
“The companies should certainly respond to countries like India,” he remarked.
The Indian foreign minister highlighted that Big Tech giants such as Facebook and Twitter were already involved in “live controversies” with the Indian government on the question of the storage of user data.
Jaishankar’s remarks came as the Indian government is scheduled to table the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2022 in the federal parliament during the ongoing winter session for ratification.
An earlier version of the proposed law had to be withdrawn in August after social media companies expressed concerns over the “data localization” provision, which demanded that foreign companies operating in India would have to store a copy of sensitive personal data within the country.
India has over 760 million Internet users, making it one of the biggest global markets for tech companies.
Jaishankar noted during the discussion that many societies such as India’s are worried about the “cross-border flow of data,” particularly who was getting to handle the data collected by Western companies.
He remarked that technology should not be viewed as being politically “neutral” and that countries with technological wherewithal have been found to use it for “nationalistic” purposes.
“Different nations and group of nations asserting their dominance based on technological capabilities would be natural,” the Indian foreign minister predicted, adding that there would also be a rise in the number of disputes.
He said that such disputes related to data flows and privacy concerns have already started to surface between governments and Big Tech companies.
Jaishankar further stated that even though globalization has led to governments cooperating more closely than ever, the same could not be said for collaboration in digital technologies.
“But when it comes to certain aspects, such as digital technology, there is a real debate going on today about trust and transparency. All companies, all providers give you the same services. Does it matter to you under which law and regulation your data is resided,” he stated.
He added that there was a need to “take a position” on issues related to technologies.
*Meta, Facebook, and Instagram are banned in Russia over extremist activities