The last few weeks have surely been exciting seeing the power play between the Indian government and US-based internet tech giants, like Facebook, Twitter, on the topic of compliance of India's new IT rules.?
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The echoes of this conflict have reverberated across the globe, making internet advocates voice their perceptions of the state of Internet in India and how it may evolve in the near future.?
And now, popular cloud storage platform CloudFlare's co-founder and CEO has stated (highlighted by The Week) that India could be moving towards a ¡®Chinese model¡¯ for regulating the internet in the nation.?
Matthew Prince revealed this in a ¡®fireside chat¡¯ with Joyce Hakmeh, a senior research fellow at British think tank Chatham House. The chat was organised by RightsCon -- a platform that focussed on human rights in the digital world.?
Prince said in a statement, ¡°What we are seeing out of India, so far, it appears to be erring more towards a Chinese model. And that's something that we all need to pay attention to think about whether that is what we want the entire internet to follow.¡±
We already know how restricted China is with internet use in its nation. It has a different version of Google than what we and the rest of the world uses, while constantly keeping tabs on its population and the kind of websites they go on, what they share on social media and the kind of media they consume.?
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Prince added, "Watch India extremely carefully; that's where a lot of the future of internet regulation is going to be thought through."
Prince also highlighted how governments could, under the garb of cybersecurity, lure in norms for elements that are harmful for them such as journalism that speaks against them, or people who voice their opinions against the government. He warns that we must ensure that this doesn¡¯t slip into other censorship and control.
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Prince also highlighted that the ultimate responsibility for the content posted/shared lies with the person who creates/shares it. After the individual, the responsibility trickles down to the platform and then followed by the hosting provider.?
Prince through his statements pointed out that the internet regulation in the US and that of China are two polar opposites, and oddly enough, according to him, the world is not happy with either of those approaches, "The internet is more costly, and as a result, more fragile to administer than I think the average person knows. It's important that everyone understands that the internet isn't 'magic' so that we can create effective policies, regulations, etc."