Big Tech companies?are transforming?India’s digital economy?and society in a multitude of ways. Although tech platforms open up new opportunities for bringing products and services to market, somewhere they also wreak serious real-world harm.
These companies have been on?the government radar in many countries?for being?big spenders and trying to steamroll competition?by either buying out their rivals or pushing vendors to avoid working with their competitors.
Recently, the?Competition Commission of India?imposed a penalty of?Rs 1,337.76 crore on Google for “abusing its dominant position” in the Android Mobile Device?ecosystem.
Considering that?big tech companies transact a large volume of data across the globe,?it is necessary to harmonize and regulate them along with maintaining standards for consumer protection.
- Big Tech collectively describes the?most prolific and prosperous technology companies in today's marketplace?which have an inordinate influence on internet users across the globe.
- They are often called the Big Five and include the following companies:
- Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft
How does India Currently Keep a Check on Big Tech?
- Internet Monopolisation:?Big tech companies?acquire competitors to buy consumer loyalty instead of earning it.
- They?leverage their market power in one line of business to gain monopolies in others,?locking consumers into their ecosystem of products and services.
- Their consolidated power can also?swing elections?and change the political mood of a nation.
- Invasion of Privacy:?When a person searches for a product online, the ads related to it appear on almost every internet platform they use. While it has many positive aspects, it has massive potential for drastic negative repercussions.
- Also, there is a?lack of transparency?in how tech companies process user data, which has made?the invasion of privacy?a default.
- Regulatory Vacuum:?Due to?rapid innovation and advancement by the Big Tech?firms, the?regulators are only able to react, not be in readiness.
- These giant platforms maintain that?they are only intermediaries?and therefore, they can’t be held liable for the content.
- Arbitrary Pricing:?In the non-digital arena,?price determination happens through market forces.?However, in the digital space, rules are largely dictated by large platforms. Consumers are products themselves on these platforms.
- Concepts like?network effects and winner-takes-all?coupled with?gatekeeping by Big Tech firms?exacerbate the problem.
- Moral Panic:?Tech platforms are used to?spread disinformation and propagate?political polarisation, hate speech,?misogynistic abuse, and terrorist propaganda, all things that cause moral panic in the general public.
- From Ex-Post to Ex-Ante Approach:?There is a need to move towards an?‘ex-ante’ approach to regulate competition in the digital market economy?instead of the ‘ex-post’ model followed now.
- This will?prevent anti-competitive behavior,?instead of just initiating a probe and penalizing after a breach occurs.
- Regulating Platform-to-Business (P2B) Space:?India must adopt a hard approach towards regulation of the?platform-to-business (P2B) space?in the larger socio-political and?economic interests of small businesses.
- Big tech companies enjoy an undeniable monopoly across sectors due to regulatory gaps and consumer loyalty. As?consumers will not easily give up the convenience that this offers,?it is?necessary to create a network of regulatory measures and safeguards centered around them.
- To have the greatest impact,?regulation should be sensitive to regional issues.
- Data Management Framework:?The regulatory framework for big tech companies to manage their data can be framed through joint collaboration between?the Ministries of Corporate Affairs, Electronics, and Information technology, as well as the Competition Commission of India.
- The government should require BigTech companies to ensure that the?data harvested from consumers will not be used for any purpose other than serving the consumer’s interest.
- Consumer Awareness:?The government needs to take adequate steps to promote?internet awareness,?such as?checking the authenticity of websites before any transactions are made, and not granting access to unauthorized applications.