Tech companies accused of weaponizing internet during Russia-Ukraine crisis

Rajeev Chandrasekhar has accused big tech platforms of weaponizing the internet during the Russia-Ukraine crisis and has called for a self-reliant ‘atmanirbhar’ internet for India. YouTube had just blocked WION over its coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war when he made his remarks. Chandrashekhar said this demonstrates the sweeping power of global social media firms and their dominance over ”splinter-nets’. He added that ‘Atmanirbhar internet’ will reduce dependency on global firms for services.

In order to de-risk the Indian internet and prevent it from being weaponized by Big Tech companies, Chandrasekhar said local laws need to be re-examined. An update on India’s cybersecurity and data governance laws is expected soon.

‘We are gone if we rely on SWIFT alone’, says Chandrasekhar. ‘We have UPI, a fintech platform in India that has reduced our need for SWIFT-type platforms for international money transfer. With Atmanirbhar Bharat, we see that we should not rely solely on big tech platforms to control or influence the Indian internet’, he added

‘We are aware of at least two phenomena: one is the weaponization of the internet. The second is the splinter-net phenomenon. Some Western countries are driving the fragmentation of the internet, driven by their power. Platforms like these have now become dominant, and in the event of a conflict between two sovereigns, they could be weaponized, and no laws prevent that,’ he said.

Internet intermediaries aren’t doing enough to combat cybercrime and hacking attacks, which is disturbing. Blocking access to the internet is disturbing. It sets an extremely troubling precedent. ‘These events reinforce India’s case for data localization, national champions, resilient internet network architecture, native open APIs (application programming interfaces), and a strong cyber security command centre,’ Chandrasekhar told The Indian Express.

The report validates our thinking in terms of a new digital law, and the need for a data governance framework. We will create a framework that will include the data protection law, digital law, and other cyber security laws. Rather than building a jurisprudence piecemeal or catching up, we aim to build cyberspace jurisprudence from the ground up. Platforms now control access to the internet in multiple ways, such as through monopolies of search engines and app stores’, he said.